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Why Some US Cities are Fighting 'Dollar Stores' (eastbaytimes.com)
The Washington Post reports on why some U.S. cities are restricting the spread of discount "dollar stores":
Residents fear the stores deter other business, especially in neighborhoods without grocers or options for healthy food. Dollar stores rarely sell fresh produce or meats, but they undercut grocery stores on prices of everyday items, often pushing them out of business...Grocery stores run on thin profit margins -- usually between 1 and 3 percent. And they employ more workers than dollar stores to keep perishable food stocked.
"It's no longer the big-box grocery store" that threatens local businesses, said David Procter, a Kansas State University professor who studies rural grocery stores. "But it's the discount retailer that's coming to town and setting up shop right across the street."
"As the stores cluster in low-income neighborhoods," the Post writes, "their critics worry they are not just a response to poverty -- but a cause."
"It's no longer the big-box grocery store" that threatens local businesses, said David Procter, a Kansas State University professor who studies rural grocery stores. "But it's the discount retailer that's coming to town and setting up shop right across the street."
"As the stores cluster in low-income neighborhoods," the Post writes, "their critics worry they are not just a response to poverty -- but a cause."
I thought this was America, where people have choice and freedom to choose what they want to eat. If they are choosing unhealthy shit, that's their choice. There will still be some supermarket if there is a demand.
Article is just wonderful. Stores are the reason why they are poor.... right. No no, these stores are bad because they sell stuff too cheap! Undercut prices for toilet paper, soap, coca cola and doritos! Have they considered that America is a free country and if it was profitable to sell fresh food, somebody would be selling. Further, a quick google MAP search uncovers a plenty of grocery shops all over Tulsa, OK, including northern part. The hero in the article, the politician, is clear about her background: never lived outside of town.....
If produce stores can't be profitable without also selling sundries, then I guess people don't want produce bad enough.
Near where I live, there's a produce store that is always jam-packed full of people. It's like Black Friday at Walmart, all day every day. So the "produce stores can't compete" argument is BS, they just need to make prices reasonable and aim for volume. Produce sections at other grocery stores I go to don't get much traffic, though, probably because the prices are ridiculous and apparently targeted at middle-class shoppers, even the non-organic stuff.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I mean, Ikea sells pizza. I don't know why anyone would expect a furniture store to sell pizza but... here we are.
The problem with IKEA’s pizza is the damn instructions for making it. By the time you figure out how to attach the cheese, the special pepperoni connectors, etc., you’ll have starved to death.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
"They may have one isle with some canned food"
That's a pretty big store. Where do you find decent parking near an isle?
Here in Canada, our stores are not nearly as large as in the States apparently.
Our stores simply use aisles.
Mostly random stuff.
What a dumb article, it is like saying "Red Spots on your skin is the cause of measles, so do not get red spots"
There are many causes of poverty, Dollar Stores are a symptom. No money is the cause of Poverty. Without a living wage how can one afford to shop elsewhere
>"Now if we want a start in fixing things simply disallow all export of produce and meats from US businesses and that would push down grocery prices quite a bit."
The economy is more complicated than that. If you cut all exports, there will be oversupply and prices will drop greatly. This is true. But THEN the free market will react and many agricultural businesses will not be able to survive on those lower prices. They will do a combination of shutting down production, raising prices, laying off workers, lowering quality, seek cheap replacement imports, etc... or go out of business. If you subsidize production more, then taxes go up and people have less money and their purchasing power goes down, which is similar to higher prices.
How is this News for Nerds?
Is it because dollar stores sell electronic parts?
Or they have a wide selection of computer games?
They sell the latest laptops?
Or they have really advanced IT?
They compute bitcoin hashes with your body heat when you walk through the door?
Maybe it's me, but there doesn't seem to be any relevance whatsoever.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
What is it with controlling people and their food?
People want a nice safe, clean employee cafeteria and the big gov says no.
People have the freedom to shop for food they can afford and big gov says no.
To protect a system that has more expensive food people can afford?
People have a sent income, let them find the food they can afford, enjoy and want to eat.
Freedom to buy products and services that are near them and at a price they can use everyday.
Should big gov tell a person how to shop, where to shop and that they have to support more expensive "grocery stores"?
Will the gov say what can be sold? What the lowest cost fresh produce, meats, fruit will be in a community?
Food shopping is now gov tracked, gov approved and with gov set prices for set food quality?
Who sets the price, food quality and what an approved grocery stores is?
Will the cost of all that gov approval be passed on with a new fresh produce, meats and fruit tax?
Let the free market set food prices, store locations and what to sell.
No gov regulation needed.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
These businesses are just capturing what the market wants or can carry. What has really failed, especially in inner cities are both economic and social policies. When it's better for tax reasons to have a single parent family, you're going to drive the poor to single families which long-term causes both economic and social instability of all sorts. When you give people thousands of dollars per month in overvalued coupons every month to buy 'food' (typically sponsored by or limited to Nestle, Kellogg's, Dole products etc) you're going to create a black market which corner shops and dollar stores are really good at fulfilling the demand for. When we were on food stamps a few years ago, the total value of the 'checks' was $2500/month but at the regular grocery stores, the products were about half the price of the value of the stamp.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
That's only vaguely true if you've been conned into believing that what the grocery store has is ripe, fresh food. Leafy greens aside, that isn't the case. Produce has to be picked under-ripe to even be shipped successfully, as supermarkets do it anyway. It's often gassed to force ripening (depending on product) and much of it lies around in cold storage for long periods before hitting store shelves. Most of this is a side effect of consumers demanding the same produce be on shelves all year, although some of it results from sourcing produce internationally.
Then, as a sibling comment points out, there's the issue of toxic can liners. Cans are lined with either plastic or epoxy. Plastic liners are more resistant to breaking when cans are dented, but more likely to leach toxics into their contents. And the likelihood increases if the food involved is acidic, which it often is - even if it isn't naturally so like tomatoes, it's often made so in order to further increase shelf life.
However, much of what they sell isn't canned at all, but it is preserved. And preserved foods are typically pounded full of sugar in order to extend their shelf life. The proliferation of HFCS isn't all involved in its use as a sweetener; processed food manufacturers use it to replace vegetable oil! It has a similar effect on food texture, but doesn't go rancid like oils do. They then cram it full of citric acid in order to cancel out the sweetness. Citric acid has health benefits in small quantities, but in large ones it threatens gut biota, both challenging digestion and also potentially contributing to a host of problems associated with poor digestive system function.
There's plenty to object to in the limited selection of foodstuffs supplied by Dollar general and their ilk. If they successfully displace real markets, they can do real harm. And we're only talking about the food so far, and not the cheap plastic disposable bullshit that they sell, which only increases landfilling since it's such garbage.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You are missing one key detail there, chief. Food deserts tend to occur in areas of high crime, which is different than poor. There are poor areas with low crime, and they have grocery stores. It turns out if treat others like shit, they don't open stores. weird.
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.