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Comment by Brybry | Hacker News Reader

I feel like some of that is maybe shopping at the wrong place. Which the article I guess covers by saying people are addressing by changing retailers to save money.

Where I am in the US, you can get a dozen eggs for ~$2 at Walmart. A loaf of bread with 22 slices is like $2 to $6 depending on store brand vs name brand. The canned refried beans I buy are still $1.30 to $1.50 for 4-5 servings.

Some stuff is way too expensive (beef) but other food items seem at normal prices to me.

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I don’t have Walmart to go to but I do have a Costco. But like I mentioned in a different comment, I can’t do normal groceries there because of the space I have + how much I can consume before it all goes bad. I still shop for a lot of things at Costco, but the point I was trying to make was comparing my same exact situation from 4 years ago to today.

The article points to shopping around and buying cheaper brands to make it work. But that’s the point, you didn’t have to do it, but now you do because things are too expensive.

You can get items at Costco that you do not need a lot of room for. Plus, you can meal prep and save time and money. It should not cost you $1500 per month to eat healthy food.

Again the point isn’t that there is a pathway to healthy and cheap food. The point is how much you have to do to get there. A few years ago you could shop at a single store and not meal prep to achieve that, now you do.

On the topic of shopping at the wrong place, in Australia we have a supermarket duopoly. Depending on where you live, you may only have the choice of Coles or Woolworths. They both suck. I'm lucky to live in the inner city and can shop at aldi or the local markets. People living in regional towns have less choice and are getting screwed over.

When you have to start shopping down market because you can't afford your normal store that is an indicator that you have less buying power now.

Saying 'everything is fine, you just have to shop down market, you can no longer afford your normal store, you need to go to the poorest store now because you are poor now' is just rephrasing what is being said.

I think the point is that everything got more expensive, everywhere. How much were these eggs at Walmart in the beginning of 2020?

A dozen of eggs at Aldi's in FL was $0.79 in 2020. Now around $3.00.

Farmed salmon was commonly $8.99 at Costco, now it's $12.99 (sometimes on sale for $9.99).

It also depends on what sort of stuff you're buying. For example here (non-US) the cheapest white bread is USD1.20, but you can bet that's the worst, most unhealthy garbage they can make. Something with high fibre is more like twice that.

> Where I am in the US, you can get a dozen eggs for ~$2 at Walmart.

Some people prefer to shop at less conglomerate and evil stores.

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