4 ms·

What exactly are the clear conclusions from this over-worded drivel? Inflation aside, if you're paying too much for groceries, you don't know how to shop. Par

What exactly are the clear conclusions from this over-worded drivel? Inflation aside, if you're paying too much for groceries, you don't know how to shop. Part of the problem is people are willing to pay $6 for bananas at Whole Paycheck, and the obsession with organic foodstuffs. When the same products are available at Walmart or Costco for 1/3 the price. I think we have an entire generation of people who never learned how to shop efficiently, look for good deals, use coupons. Let's be honest, the clientele at Whole Foods generally wouldn't be caught dead at Walmart. It's mostly psychological; the food there is not necessarily higher quality. For example, Costco sells restaurant-quality meat; you can buy Wagyu steak there. But you need to consider that maybe paying $8 for a loaf of 'organic' bread is an irrational decision. Their loss, I suppose.

lr4444lr 4y ago
Whole Paycheck has certain products they can't find anywhere else easily. The higher price for the bananas is the price you pay for one stop shop convenience. The whole concept of the gas station convenience store is built on this concept. And you know what? Convenience had value. As for an $8 organic loaf of bread, that's easily the cost of a glass of cheap wine at a restaurant, or two ice cream cones. Seems like a good deal for a premium, healthier item.
- assttoasstmgr 4y ago
  > Whole Paycheck has certain products they can't find anywhere else easily. [...] > Seems like a good deal for a premium, healthier item. Last time I shopped there I paid nearly $4 for a bottle of lemon juice that looked and tasted like sewer water. Down the drain it went, as did my money. That store exudes an Apple-like reality distortion field, and it seems to be working pretty well.
Georgelemental 4y ago
If the greatest trick the devil ever played is convincing people he doesn't exist, his second-greatest trick is convincing Americans that eating well is for stuck-up elitist liberals. Yes, While Foods is mega-expensive and not that good for the price. But that's not because good food is a fake consumerist concept, it's because the American agricultural system has been gutted by perverse commercial and regulatory incentives. Go to almost any other developed nation (or many developing ones), get better food for less money
- assttoasstmgr 4y ago
  I think it's more that as Americans have evolved and more people seek white-collar occupations, and as women have taken more career (as opposed to domestic) paths as dual-income households become necessary to survive especially in places like SF, people have lost critical skills. Like how to cook healthy with a few basic ingredients. Most of the people I work with don't know how to use an oven. I don't think half of them know how to shop at a grocery store, either. If Uber Eats ceased to exist I'm concerned they would starve to death or be forced to survive on peanut butter and jelly. When you convince enough people that $13 for a grilled cheese sandwich is acceptable, that becomes the norm. It's the milkshake scene in Pulp Fiction become reality.
  - Georgelemental 4y ago
    Bad cooking habits are a problem for sure, but they are not the whole story. Good cooking can only do so much to redeem bad ingredients, and American ingredients are often simply terrible. Our meat is bland, tasteless, and stuffed with seed oils (American chicken especially is execrable compared to the what the rest of the world eats). Our fruits and vegetables are bred for size and productivity at the expense of variety, nutrition, and taste. The government reconmends, and in fact often mandates, consuming "low-fat" versions of foods that have had their calories replaced with sugar. And not even with real sugar, because Great Depression-era import quotas keep the price of real sugar high so high fructose corn syrup can be cheaper and big ag lobbies can be happy. Want a fresh tomato with a modicum of flavor? Where I live, all the tomatoes I can find are either ripened off the vine (and therefore worthless) or canned. Yes, many consumers have terrible habits, but systemic forces aren't helping.
    - astrange 4y ago
      > Our meat is bland, tasteless, and stuffed with seed oils (American chicken especially is execrable compared to the what the rest of the world eats). Think you have your conspiracies confused there. The chickens are different because of being washed in chlorine. The cows are fat because they eat soy. It's you who's fat and feminized from the seed oils. …is the current alternative health food theory. But you can easily get grass-feed beef, and people tend to dislike it compared to grain-fed beef, because it tastes grassier and has less fat.
astrange 4y ago
Whole Foods isn't expensive anymore, this post is from like 6 years ago. Amazon lowered their prices on basic goods and keeps it higher on the packaged goods. Which are usually not especially healthy, they just have some superfood ingredients in them.

lr4444lr 4y ago

Whole Paycheck has certain products they can't find anywhere else easily. The higher price for the bananas is the price you pay for one stop shop convenience. The whole concept of the gas station convenience store is built on this concept. And you know what? Convenience had value. As for an $8 organic loaf of bread, that's easily the cost of a glass of cheap wine at a restaurant, or two ice cream cones. Seems like a good deal for a premium, healthier item.

assttoasstmgr 4y ago
> Whole Paycheck has certain products they can't find anywhere else easily. [...] > Seems like a good deal for a premium, healthier item. Last time I shopped there I paid nearly $4 for a bottle of lemon juice that looked and tasted like sewer water. Down the drain it went, as did my money. That store exudes an Apple-like reality distortion field, and it seems to be working pretty well.

Georgelemental 4y ago

If the greatest trick the devil ever played is convincing people he doesn't exist, his second-greatest trick is convincing Americans that eating well is for stuck-up elitist liberals. Yes, While Foods is mega-expensive and not that good for the price. But that's not because good food is a fake consumerist concept, it's because the American agricultural system has been gutted by perverse commercial and regulatory incentives. Go to almost any other developed nation (or many developing ones), get better food for less money

assttoasstmgr 4y ago
I think it's more that as Americans have evolved and more people seek white-collar occupations, and as women have taken more career (as opposed to domestic) paths as dual-income households become necessary to survive especially in places like SF, people have lost critical skills. Like how to cook healthy with a few basic ingredients. Most of the people I work with don't know how to use an oven. I don't think half of them know how to shop at a grocery store, either. If Uber Eats ceased to exist I'm concerned they would starve to death or be forced to survive on peanut butter and jelly. When you convince enough people that $13 for a grilled cheese sandwich is acceptable, that becomes the norm. It's the milkshake scene in Pulp Fiction become reality.
- Georgelemental 4y ago
  Bad cooking habits are a problem for sure, but they are not the whole story. Good cooking can only do so much to redeem bad ingredients, and American ingredients are often simply terrible. Our meat is bland, tasteless, and stuffed with seed oils (American chicken especially is execrable compared to the what the rest of the world eats). Our fruits and vegetables are bred for size and productivity at the expense of variety, nutrition, and taste. The government reconmends, and in fact often mandates, consuming "low-fat" versions of foods that have had their calories replaced with sugar. And not even with real sugar, because Great Depression-era import quotas keep the price of real sugar high so high fructose corn syrup can be cheaper and big ag lobbies can be happy. Want a fresh tomato with a modicum of flavor? Where I live, all the tomatoes I can find are either ripened off the vine (and therefore worthless) or canned. Yes, many consumers have terrible habits, but systemic forces aren't helping.
  - astrange 4y ago
    > Our meat is bland, tasteless, and stuffed with seed oils (American chicken especially is execrable compared to the what the rest of the world eats). Think you have your conspiracies confused there. The chickens are different because of being washed in chlorine. The cows are fat because they eat soy. It's you who's fat and feminized from the seed oils. …is the current alternative health food theory. But you can easily get grass-feed beef, and people tend to dislike it compared to grain-fed beef, because it tastes grassier and has less fat.

astrange 4y ago

Whole Foods isn't expensive anymore, this post is from like 6 years ago. Amazon lowered their prices on basic goods and keeps it higher on the packaged goods. Which are usually not especially healthy, they just have some superfood ingredients in them.