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Comment by jkimmel | Hacker News Reader

>If you've got no money, you end up having to buy eg single cans of drinks instead of large bottles...you'd end up paying a lot more for a similar amount of stuff than someone who happened to have the money for the bulk.

As an aside, this effect may be further pronounced if lower-income consumers don't have the storage space for bulk purchasing.

Even if the differences in price are within someone's budget, they may be forced to purchase smaller, more expensive per unit items because they don't have enough shelf/refrigerator/storage space. In San Francisco for example, I think many people who wouldn't necessarily be considered lower-income consumers are negatively effected by an inability to purchase in bulk.

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Yes, these effects turn up in poorer people not having freezers (and so needing to shop more regularly and/or not take advantage of some better value foods); washing machines (using a laundrette is expensive in time and money).

This week I've had to repair my car, computer, television and today I need to fix the boiler ... maintaining a house is hard with low income as things tend to have to wait for funds, and those things have a knock on effect.

Example: our poor neighbour needs roof work, their roof is causing our property to be wet, we have mouldy walls, peeling wallpaper. They don't have funds to get a roofer, we don't have funds to do the work for them (which would be to our benefit) nor to sue them to force them to do the work. Results - health risks, much faster property deterioration including risks of rotting wood and need to redecorate.

Social circles make a big difference too - our kids feel unhappy sometimes because their friends all have more stuff than them (for better or worse that's how they feel); on the flipside we get lots of hand-me-downs meaning we can much more afford to clothe ourselves than we otherwise would.

True, although in the US, larger suburban spaces are often cheaper than in-town apartments or houses. Our last apartment in Atlanta was 30-40% larger than our current one and had far more walk-in closet and storage space than we needed, yet was $500/mo cheaper than our present apartment in Midtown.

But yes, point taken; I grant that all other things being equal, poorer people aren't going to have as much storage space as wealthier ones.

But poor people could organize via the internet and buy in bulk as a group.

Quoting from the article:

> Low smartphone penetration in turn makes life more expensive in other ways. The unconnected do not benefit from the cheap communication, education, and even transport the app economy provides. A quarter of poor households do not use the internet at all, which makes seeking out low prices harder.

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