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Comment by llm_trw | Hacker News Reader

Hn has a highly inflated view of the economy because we only see the top of the economic pie. I shop at cheap ethnic stores because I grew up with that food and the prices that poor people see are two to three times what they were 5 years ago. Telling this to someone who buys premium organic free range eggs is like trying to explain to a fish that a flood doesn't benefit everyone.

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It’s funny you mention eggs because I live in one of the highest cost of living areas in the country with legally mandated cage free eggs and Trader Joes has them for $2.99 a dozen when people keep complaining about $6+ a dozen in the rest of the country (which is what I’d pay if I wanted the premium organic free range shit). When a famously expensive grocery store for yuppies has cheap eggs in Southern California, I figure the OP is right in their word choice: it’s a vibe-cession.

I also shop mostly at ethnic grocery stores (Superking, Ranch 99, H mart, etc) and IMO the problem isn’t inflation but general consolidation across many industries. I’m always shocked when I travel to less populated regions (even in California) and see their grocery availability, usually dominated by a single major chain like Albertsons or a local one like Publix. SoCal has competitive prices for groceries despite the high cost of living because there are so many people (and immigrants) to support many competitors, none of whom have real pricing power. My grocery budget hasn’t gone up significantly in the last five years despite switching to Costco for my meat rather than the cheaper halaal butcher.

Eggs are always more expensive at the ethnic stores here but cheap at TJs because they use it as a competitive loss leader. A lot of the country can’t support such competition so there’s zero incentive for suppliers to drive down costs.

TJs is famously cheap, not expensive.

Not where I come from. I grew up in the area, not far from the first Trader Joes and down the street from the second, and it’s always been considered an upscale store because it had so many cheaper competitors a few miles away. It was founded to supply the wealthy neighborhoods of Pasadena and South Pasadena.

I think you are kind of both right. When TJ’S started they intentionally wouldn’t sell things like milk and eggs because they couldn’t compete with big chains. The niche they were after were “over educated and under paid”.

So they were famously cheap for things that poor and blue collar families weren’t looking for anyway. UMC goods on a LMC budget, really.

TJs is not cheap.

It's not a vibe-session when the bottom 50% see inflation that five times the headline rate. It's class warfare and somehow the party of the people is the one defending it.

In the fight between labor and capital, the favored class is right there on the label of the economic system. Class warfare is a built-in feature of capitalism - no mainstream American political party is going to repudiate capitalism; the DSA is far from the mainstream and this is exactly its main bone of contention with center/center-right liberals. There hasn't been an unabashedly pro-labor major political party in the US anymore since Bill Clinton's "Third way".

Eggs are such a red herring. I pay $6 for eggs. You know how much I’d save with eggs at half price? A whopping $12 a month. Meanwhile my rent goes up by 10x that a year and thats with rent control. Everyone gets all bent out of shape about the price of gas and the price of food but that could realistically double and you’d only be out another what $200 a month or so. No its the rent that is the squeeze for most people not the eggs being $6 and the gas being $5. But of course that is the headlines and not the focus on the lack of housing supply due to restrictive zoning.

but there are 12 months in a year so eggs outweigh rent here

$120 a month >>> $12.

>Meanwhile my rent goes up by 10x that a year and thats with rent control.

You mean 10%? 10x is just not believable.

No, like the montly rate might go up by $120 a month or more each year which is 10x $12.

Loved the fish analogy

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