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Comment by abnry | Hacker News Reader

> The thing I don't like about these stores is IMO they take advantage of poor people who think they are getting cheaper products

This only makes sense if you think poor people are dumb or naive. They don't know how to compare prices?

As other people have mentioned, sometimes the value is the amount you can buy. If your personal financial margins are small, it is okay to spend more per oz on a single bar of soap because it is the difference between having soap vs not.

We shouldn't assume cost per unit is the only value a store provides.

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> This only makes sense if you think poor people are dumb or naive. They don't know how to compare prices?

I wouldn't go so far as to say "dumb or naive" as we're all susceptible to dark patterns. But the Dollar stores definitely prey on people this way. They have specially sized packages made for many products to make comparison more difficult.

I do know a lot of poor people and they are actually extremely financially dumb and naive. They do not know how to compare prices per unit of measure. They do think the dollar store is cheap. They did have a goal of not using DoorDash for a month because their addiction is so bad. They will DoorDash fast food because they are too lazy to go pick it up.

I've known poor people (heck I have been - and compared to some here no doubt still are - poor people). The ones who are not dumb, end up being not poor eventually, even if not rich.

DoorDash has more value when you’re poor because you are less mobile, and more generally are less likely to have a well outfitted kitchen, and I see a lot of younger people who are inexperienced cooks using it.

It’s no secret that it’s a terribly fast way to burn cash but a downward spiral of depression from being poor -> ordering food because you’re too depressed to cook -> depression from being poor can occur. Mind that I’d advise such people hoard frozen dinners and save a whack of cash, it isn’t quite the same.

I honestly think that poor people can even UNDERESTIMATE how valuable debt-fueled DoorDash and Uber usage is if they expect upwards economic mobility in the near future (Students) since it’s one of the better time/money tradeoffs they can do.

Poor people have less time, and also worse access to good educations. Stupidity is not required. “Sometimes the value is the amount you can buy” Sure, but on a systemic level we can still see the issue, i.e. that being poor is expensive.

Price comparison is mostly basic arithmetic, combined with maybe a touch of nutritional knowledge. Hardly something you couldn’t master with a middle school education.

A poor person might not be that clever and might not have much time and might make a bad decision the first time they visit family dollar and get conned by watered down soap and subpar goods and food in unusually small portions. However when they shop there for YEARS they do eventually find the time to figure out what the deals are. When these stores have tons of poor people being loyal customers for years it indicates they’re doing something right.

> This only makes sense if you think poor people are dumb or naive. They don't know how to compare prices?

Its pretty hard when each thing is served in a different size container and it can have different values from the most important ingredient. This is sometimes pretty easy to figure out (e.g. juices usually have the same 2-3 sizes where I live) but sometimes its practically impossible to know whats the best value for money, e.g. paper towels -- size, number of layers, number of sheets, total length etc are all the parameters that one should consider. Or bring a precision scale?

>This only makes sense if you think poor people are dumb or naive.

I would say ALL consumers are not consistently logical / will make choices that aren't in their best interest.

True, but I think most consumers aren't obviously "dumb". Most people past 3rd grade can tell that $4 for 1 gallon is cheaper than $2 for 1 quart. It gets trickier when it's not a direct comparison though... would you rather drive 20 min farther to save the $4? Probably not just for that one item, but if you are buying a large amount then the answer changes.

We don't necessarily do a cost/benefit analysis of all these options, which is why we can have irrational preferences, but that doesn't mean we don't think about it at all. Irrational just means it's not optimal, it doesn't mean it's the actual worst choice.

Perception is a strange thing too, and I think greatly distorts when people do make comparisons. On a forum about my local area it became a common thing for folks to go down to the expensive grocery store and post pics of the most expensive thing (usually pre-preapred meals) and rant about how expensive it is at the expensive store.

I was curious so one day I was at the more expensive store (I like it, they have good stuff) and I took some photos. I then went to Aldi and took some photos.

Without commentary I posted the photos from the expensive store, but only of items that were actually less or equally expensive than Aldi on that day. People ranted about the prices being high at the expensive store and shared that "That's why I shop at Aldi."

People are weird.

Then everybody cheats on size/weight/count. Used to have inspectors (Reagan abolished that?) so now we just trust the manufacturers. The predictable result: creeping size/weight erosion.

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