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Is there a citation for this? TBH it sounds like a just so story - in my experience, grocery store prices in a city are pretty uniform.

by tqi 4y ago

citizenpaul 4y ago
SO you personally go around checking and comparing the prices on thousands of items at various grocery stores? One of the biggest cognitive fallacies of the human brain is thinking that you can accurately aggregate and compare prices in this manner. Its one of the reasons that airplane tickets are sold the way they are.
- ruggeri 4y ago
  They did ask for a citation. They asked for an analysis of the data. They just also gave their impression. They didn't imply that it was a comprehensive study or scientific. And they're right to ask. They shouldn't believe something just because someone said it on the internet.
- tqi 4y ago
  Another cognitive fallacy is confirmation bias...
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
If you were price sensitive you'd eventually develop a feel for which grocery store had the cheap meat, which grocery store had the cheap veggies, etc. among stores with similar overall cost. In addition, there's usually some "nicer" grocery stores where you pay a premium to never have to wait in line behind someone using EBT though I think Whole Foods mostly dominates that niche these days.
- radicaldreamer 4y ago
  A lot of people do this anyway because of product choice. For example, most people I know that have transitioned to more cooking at home as they've gotten older have favorite products which they grab from Trader Joe's, some bulk items from Costco, produce from certain grocery stores etc. but they know that you shouldn't get produce from Trader Joe's or a Target for example. And then there's availability: some veggies are not readily available outside of asian grocery stores and meat prices can vary widely from store to store.
yamtaddle 4y ago
> in my experience, grocery store prices in a city are pretty uniform. Good lord, ours aren't. Our most-convenient grocery store has prices like 25% higher than Wal-Mart, ~15% higher than a couple larger grocery stores farther away, and 10% higher than Target.
- tqi 4y ago
  Oh sorry I meant within chains. ie the sketchy Safeway near me is the same price as the Safeway in the more posh part of town. My thinking is this data would be useful at the store level, but at the city or region level there are much easier ways to get data on the economic condition.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    Ah, sure, yeah, those are fairly consistent here, that's true. A couple exceptions (e.g. one grocery store dead center in our downtown) but yeah, mostly accurate.

Is there a citation for this? TBH it sounds like a just so story - in my experience, grocery store prices in a city are pretty uniform.

by tqi 4y ago

Is there a citation for this? TBH it sounds like a just so story - in my experience, grocery store prices in a city are pretty uniform.

citizenpaul 4y ago

SO you personally go around checking and comparing the prices on thousands of items at various grocery stores? One of the biggest cognitive fallacies of the human brain is thinking that you can accurately aggregate and compare prices in this manner. Its one of the reasons that airplane tickets are sold the way they are.

ruggeri 4y ago
They did ask for a citation. They asked for an analysis of the data. They just also gave their impression. They didn't imply that it was a comprehensive study or scientific. And they're right to ask. They shouldn't believe something just because someone said it on the internet.
tqi 4y ago
Another cognitive fallacy is confirmation bias...

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

If you were price sensitive you'd eventually develop a feel for which grocery store had the cheap meat, which grocery store had the cheap veggies, etc. among stores with similar overall cost. In addition, there's usually some "nicer" grocery stores where you pay a premium to never have to wait in line behind someone using EBT though I think Whole Foods mostly dominates that niche these days.

radicaldreamer 4y ago
A lot of people do this anyway because of product choice. For example, most people I know that have transitioned to more cooking at home as they've gotten older have favorite products which they grab from Trader Joe's, some bulk items from Costco, produce from certain grocery stores etc. but they know that you shouldn't get produce from Trader Joe's or a Target for example. And then there's availability: some veggies are not readily available outside of asian grocery stores and meat prices can vary widely from store to store.

yamtaddle 4y ago

> in my experience, grocery store prices in a city are pretty uniform. Good lord, ours aren't. Our most-convenient grocery store has prices like 25% higher than Wal-Mart, ~15% higher than a couple larger grocery stores farther away, and 10% higher than Target.

tqi 4y ago
Oh sorry I meant within chains. ie the sketchy Safeway near me is the same price as the Safeway in the more posh part of town. My thinking is this data would be useful at the store level, but at the city or region level there are much easier ways to get data on the economic condition.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Ah, sure, yeah, those are fairly consistent here, that's true. A couple exceptions (e.g. one grocery store dead center in our downtown) but yeah, mostly accurate.