Healthy Eating & Your Grocery Bill
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OK - in the continued spirit of veering off topic, I have a question for anyone in Australia or NZ: What is the average/on special price of lamb where you live? In the U.S., I buy imported lamb at Sam's Club, Costco, or sometimes Aldi for $5-6 USD per U.S. pound. In my head, I always imagine folks in NZ are getting lamb for pennies per pound and are sick and tired of eating it.0
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OK - in the continued spirit of veering off topic, I have a question for anyone in Australia or NZ: What is the average/on special price of lamb where you live? In the U.S., I buy imported lamb at Sam's Club, Costco, or sometimes Aldi for $5-6 USD per U.S. pound. In my head, I always imagine folks in NZ are getting lamb for pennies per pound and are sick and tired of eating it.
I never see lamb at $5-6/lb. it’s never on sale. I’d stock up if it was. It’s always at least $9.99/lb for ground lamb. Forget chops or leg. I never buy it, but would at that price.
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missysippy930 wrote: »OK - in the continued spirit of veering off topic, I have a question for anyone in Australia or NZ: What is the average/on special price of lamb where you live? In the U.S., I buy imported lamb at Sam's Club, Costco, or sometimes Aldi for $5-6 USD per U.S. pound. In my head, I always imagine folks in NZ are getting lamb for pennies per pound and are sick and tired of eating it.
I never see lamb at $5-6/lb. it’s never on sale. I’d stock up if it was. It’s always at least $9.99/lb for ground lamb. Forget chops or leg. I never buy it, but would at that price.
Yeah, it might be cheaper at Costco, Aldi, etc, but at my grocery store, ground lamb is $10-12 per pound,
and lamb chops are $20 per pound.0 -
wunderkindking wrote: »This whole discussion is a display of people demonstrating that they've never, ever, been really food insecure with their luxury of shopping sells, traveling to different stores, and having a lot of storage space -- and money to do the initial outlay of buying large portions and bulk to start with. Instead of 'my grocery budget is 25.00 this week for 2 people'.
Yes, the discussion I'd intended was about personal experiences with grocery costs given an assumed healthier diet, not some philosophical or hypothetical tangent. Happily, there is always an opportunity to create a new thread with the directions you've referenced. It's an interesting subject.
My biggest savings have been in no longer buying ice cream, sugary soda, bakery goodies, candy, packaged cookies, cheeses and deli items. I also used to hit a drive thru once or twice a week and buy a take-out pizza every other week - usually a large one that I would devour in under 4 hours.
I think it's hard to have the discussion about grocery cost without factoring in financial ability...it's neither a philosophical or hypothetical tangent. Typically people who mention healthy eating being more expensive fall into one of two categories...they are financially disadvantaged. They're people like I was in college living off Ramen that costs a couple bucks for an entire case vs the same cost to buy a couple pieces of fresh produce or a small container of greens. Group two would be people who buy into a lot of marketing in regards to super foods, organic, and pre-packaged convenient goods that are marketed as healthy options. I don't think most people talking about the expense of healthier eating are talking about money they might save by not buying ice cream, which would most certainly have been a pure luxury item when I was broke and not something I would have purchased on any kind of regular basis.
My diet isn't substantially different from when I was gaining weight to losing weight. Once I could afford to, I ate pretty healthy overall and nothing really changed there as far as my grocery shopping went save for I started eating more vegetables and fruits. I started eating leaner cuts of meat vs fattier cuts and cooking with less fats and oils and watched my portions. My grocery bill didn't really change much at all, if any. My savings was due to brown bagging my lunch and spending my lunch hour at work exercising vs going out everyday with my colleagues.
Biggest change in my actual grocery bill was having two boys who are now 9 and 11 and can eat a house.
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Aldi lamb chops/butterflied cuts are $10 USD lb. Boneless leg is usually $5-$6 USD. If I haunt the meat counter, I can sometimes get boneless leg of lamb for $4 USD on it's last sell/freeze date.1
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
I think it's hard to have the discussion about grocery cost without factoring in financial ability...it's neither a philosophical or hypothetical tangent...
I must respectfully disagree only because my original question wasn't about those things. While worthy discussions, imaginary scenarios along with allusions to college life and folks unskilled in cookery are beside the point here. I can well afford fresh caught fish, grass-fed buffalo and high end organic fruits and veg seven days a week. It's just not my nature to do so.
The topic only occurred to me after a workmate complained about the high price of his keto diet. For him, his 'healthy' diet tripled his grocery bills while my 1500 calorie budget without fast food, sweets and convenience foods significantly dropped mine.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »wunderkindking wrote: »This whole discussion is a display of people demonstrating that they've never, ever, been really food insecure with their luxury of shopping sells, traveling to different stores, and having a lot of storage space -- and money to do the initial outlay of buying large portions and bulk to start with. Instead of 'my grocery budget is 25.00 this week for 2 people'.
Yes, the discussion I'd intended was about personal experiences with grocery costs given an assumed healthier diet, not some philosophical or hypothetical tangent. Happily, there is always an opportunity to create a new thread with the directions you've referenced. It's an interesting subject.
My biggest savings have been in no longer buying ice cream, sugary soda, bakery goodies, candy, packaged cookies, cheeses and deli items. I also used to hit a drive thru once or twice a week and buy a take-out pizza every other week - usually a large one that I would devour in under 4 hours.
I think it's hard to have the discussion about grocery cost without factoring in financial ability...it's neither a philosophical or hypothetical tangent. Typically people who mention healthy eating being more expensive fall into one of two categories...they are financially disadvantaged. They're people like I was in college living off Ramen that costs a couple bucks for an entire case vs the same cost to buy a couple pieces of fresh produce or a small container of greens. Group two would be people who buy into a lot of marketing in regards to super foods, organic, and pre-packaged convenient goods that are marketed as healthy options. I don't think most people talking about the expense of healthier eating are talking about money they might save by not buying ice cream, which would most certainly have been a pure luxury item when I was broke and not something I would have purchased on any kind of regular basis.
My diet isn't substantially different from when I was gaining weight to losing weight. Once I could afford to, I ate pretty healthy overall and nothing really changed there as far as my grocery shopping went save for I started eating more vegetables and fruits. I started eating leaner cuts of meat vs fattier cuts and cooking with less fats and oils and watched my portions. My grocery bill didn't really change much at all, if any. My savings was due to brown bagging my lunch and spending my lunch hour at work exercising vs going out everyday with my colleagues.
Biggest change in my actual grocery bill was having two boys who are now 9 and 11 and can eat a house.
Mostly this.
I can't be philosophical with it because my lived experience is effectively this. Truthfully my grocery bill going up a lot when I started eating healthier/better was unrelated to weight-loss. .I was obese eating perfectly healthy food. The substantial change in the bill and switch to healthier came when I *had more money to spend*.
I stayed obese eating healthy. The cost me losing weight (or now after loss) is about the same as obese. I buy spend some more expensive stuff and some that's cheaper, bu t it's not that what I ate then was unhealthy and what I eat now isn't. It's that now I buy almond milk and protein powder instead of 3 kinds of dairy milk. ...or well did, I'm back to real dairy now because my caloric needs are higher now. Or 30 dollars of protein powder every 2 weeks instead of a similar amount spent on my previously higher consumption of beef?
So are we talking about a change in WEIGHT LOSS grocery bills or the cost of eating healthier food. They're... not interchangeable.5 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
I think it's hard to have the discussion about grocery cost without factoring in financial ability...it's neither a philosophical or hypothetical tangent...
I must respectfully disagree only because my original question wasn't about those things. While worthy discussions, imaginary scenarios along with allusions to college life and folks unskilled in cookery are beside the point here. I can well afford fresh caught fish, grass-fed buffalo and high end organic fruits and veg seven days a week. It's just not my nature to do so.
The topic only occurred to me after a workmate complained about the high price of his keto diet. For him, his 'healthy' diet tripled his grocery bills while my 1500 calorie budget without fast food, sweets and convenience foods significantly dropped mine.
From your OP...I've often heard the lament that eating 'healthy' is much more costly than eating highly processed, low nutrition junk.[/b[ I may be odd woman out here, but I have found just the opposite to be true.
To the bolded...like I said, you typically hear this from people who are financially disadvantaged to where making healthier options are indeed more expensive...or people falling for "healthier" marketing gimmicks and paying a premium for that marketing.
If your friend is complaining about a keto diet he may fall into the latter as there are numerous packaged foods marketed as keto friendly that are beyond pricey...either that or he added a lot of expensive meat products.
I don't know how you can call these imaginary scenarios...you must live a very privileged life. I myself live a privileged life currently, but I've also seen the other side, and there's nothing imaginary about it.6 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I don't know how you can call these imaginary scenarios...you must live a very privileged life. I myself live a privileged life currently, but I've also seen the other side, and there's nothing imaginary about it.
Not imaginary in macro - only re this thread which was intended as pre-weight loss vs. nutritional awareness/weight loss... not about rich vs. poor.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I don't know how you can call these imaginary scenarios...you must live a very privileged life. I myself live a privileged life currently, but I've also seen the other side, and there's nothing imaginary about it.
Not imaginary in macro - only re this thread which was intended as pre-weight loss vs. nutritional awareness/weight loss... not about rich vs. poor.
Which is about zero difference for me.
Also...your first sentence was "people lamenting the cost of eating healthy"...(whispers)...those people are largely poor or otherwise financially disadvantage (/whispers). So you may not have intended it that way, but when you talk about people lamenting the cost of eating healthy being more expensive, you are automatically talking largely about the financially disadvantaged, so it's impossible not to include that in the conversation. Because the bottom line is that it is more expensive to eat healthy than to poorly.
So take being poor out of it. I'm relatively well off and I can afford to eat very well. I could also just live off of poor nutrient contents of cheap pre-packaged goods...and it would be way cheaper than what I eat now...because that stuff is cheap as hell. I could buy like five years worth of Ramen for what I spend on our annual haul of 25 Lbs of Salmon brought in from BC by my buddy's uncle.
I really don't get this whole argument. Eating a well rounded nutritious whole foods diet is substantially more expensive than eating poor nutrient pre-packaged foods. It just is. This is proved out in numerous articles and economic studies. It's just a silly argument to make that it's cheaper.6 -
My only addition to this conversation: some people lump eating out and groceries into a single "food" budget, and some people include beer, wine, etc into their grocery budget. If you combine eating out, desserts, and drink items as part of your "grocery costs," it would make sense that eating healthy is cheaper. But when you're focusing on staple food items and perishable/whole versus nonparishable/processed snacks and meals... there's enough economic studies showing unhealthy= cheaper. This is ESPECIALLY true if you're only shopping for one or two people. This is mainly because perishable foods are more likely to be thrown out if too much is bought, or not buying in bulk leads to a higher cost per serving.1
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kenziestabes wrote: »My only addition to this conversation: some people lump eating out and groceries into a single "food" budget, and some people include beer, wine, etc into their grocery budget. If you combine eating out, desserts, and drink items as part of your "grocery costs," it would make sense that eating healthy is cheaper. But when you're focusing on staple food items and perishable/whole versus nonparishable/processed snacks and meals... there's enough economic studies showing unhealthy= cheaper. This is ESPECIALLY true if you're only shopping for one or two people. This is mainly because perishable foods are more likely to be thrown out if too much is bought, or not buying in bulk leads to a higher cost per serving.
This is what I was alluding to. If someone truly is living off of mostly pre-packaged low nutrient foods and they make the switch to largely whole foods and actually cooking, it is going to be exponentially more expensive to eat healthier.
Eating an already relatively healthful diet and cutting out sodas or ice cream or whatever and having a cost savings related to that isn't really what people are complaining about when they lament the cost of eating healthier.
I've also always had a separate eating out vs grocery budget. Grocery shopping and cooking and consuming whole foods is infinitely cheaper than eating out 1-3 meals per day. But I don't know that's so much a health thing as it is a convenience thing. My buddy eats out lunch and dinner pretty much every day and he's pretty choosey as far as nutrition goes...but he pays a fortune for the convenience.4 -
IDK, I grew up very poor and that's how I learned how to eat very healthy for very little money. I grew up on rice+beans dishes, which is actually a much broader range of meals than people tend to imagine. We ate indian, asian, latin american, middle eastern dishes, etc. Having rice+beans as a base can mean an enormous range of dishes, many originating from very poor regions of the world who know how to stretch a food budget!
As I said, I make very healthy vegetarian meals largely with legumes and grains (often rice+beans, but sometimes lentils+farro, or chickpeas+millet, etc, etc) as the base, plus some cheaper fresh produce, and a fair amount of frozen and canned vegetables, which are much cheaper than fresh. I also make a lot of dishes that include eggs, which are cheaper than meat.
I also make bread or tortillas from scratch, and the only expensive "treat" we have in the house is roasted almonds.
Also, it's not just poor people who lament the cost of healthy eating. I may eat the same way I did when I was poor, but we are very financially comfortable, and a lot of our wealthy, obese friends and colleagues whine constantly about how expensive it is to eat healthy, and they definitely use it as an excuse for why they can't lose weight.
This gets a massive eye roll from me because these are also people spending $400-600/mo on alcohol...but sure, the cost of apples is the problem...
The challenges of poor people having access to healthy food is well beyond the issues of the prices at the grocery store, and its a complex issue that is incredibly important and should be dismissed. However, that's a totally separate issue from people who do really use the cost of produce as an excuse not to take responsibility for their own health.
Both things can be true.
So speaking as someone who has lived in poverty and currently does not, because I have the resources of a middle class lifestyle, I find it VERY easy to cook nutritious meals for very, very little money by focusing on dishes that are made with fundamentally cheaper staples.
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IDK, I grew up very poor and that's how I learned how to eat very healthy for very little money. I grew up on rice+beans dishes, which is actually a much broader range of meals than people tend to imagine. We ate indian, asian, latin american, middle eastern dishes, etc. Having rice+beans as a base can mean an enormous range of dishes, many originating from very poor regions of the world who know how to stretch a food budget!
As I said, I make very healthy vegetarian meals largely with legumes and grains (often rice+beans, but sometimes lentils+farro, or chickpeas+millet, etc, etc) as the base, plus some cheaper fresh produce, and a fair amount of frozen and canned vegetables, which are much cheaper than fresh. I also make a lot of dishes that include eggs, which are cheaper than meat.
I also make bread or tortillas from scratch, and the only expensive "treat" we have in the house is roasted almonds.
Also, it's not just poor people who lament the cost of healthy eating. I may eat the same way I did when I was poor, but we are very financially comfortable, and a lot of our wealthy, obese friends and colleagues whine constantly about how expensive it is to eat healthy, and they definitely use it as an excuse for why they can't lose weight.
This gets a massive eye roll from me because these are also people spending $400-600/mo on alcohol...but sure, the cost of apples is the problem...
The challenges of poor people having access to healthy food is well beyond the issues of the prices at the grocery store, and its a complex issue that is incredibly important and should be dismissed. However, that's a totally separate issue from people who do really use the cost of produce as an excuse not to take responsibility for their own health.
Both things can be true.
So speaking as someone who has lived in poverty and currently does not, because I have the resources of a middle class lifestyle, I find it VERY easy to cook nutritious meals for very, very little money by focusing on dishes that are made with fundamentally cheaper staples.
It's very possible. I don't know where you're from, but in the USA when people lament the cost of eating healthy it is largely attributable to eating a diet consisting largely of very cheap packaged goods like Ramen or Mac 'n Cheese (as examples) and entering into the world of whole foods and cooking. A 24 pack case of Ramen Noodles costs about $2.50. The asparagus my wife just bought for dinner tonight was $6.99 for a small bundle. These are the things that many are looking at when they lament the price of eating healthier.
Basically transitioning from a junk diet to a largely whole foods, nutrient dense diet is expensive. Not to mention, people who live on these prepackaged foods are going to no nothing really about cooking with inexpensive staples like rice and grains and turning that into variety. It absolutely can be done, but most of these people have also never done much more than boil some water and throw a package of food into it. So that would be a whole other issue. My former boss ate Cheerios with milk for breakfast and a Cup 'O Noodles everyday for lunch and had takeout or fast food for dinner pretty much every night because he has no idea how to cook anything.5 -
Not to mention that, in major U.S. cities, food deserts are a thing. Basically, there are entire neighborhoods which don't have a grocery store of any kind, budget or otherwise. The local 7/11 might have rice and beans, but it definitely has instant ramen. People in these communities may also not have reliable vehicles necessary to drive to the (not so) nearest grocery store. They do, however, live in walking distance from a McDonalds. So the hidden cost of eating healthy is: gas/petrol, a bus fare, a train fare, paying for an uber/taxi, buying and maintaining a vehicle, and/or time. The further away you live from a grocery store, the higher that hidden cost is.5
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I include alcohol - or more specifically current lack thereof. Before monitoring my calorie intake, I would think nothing of having a glass of wine after dinner or ordering sugary cocktails when out with friends. Pizza with pals automatically meant ice cold beer. Once every calorie became dear to me, I almost never drink wine at home and stick to a single low calorie option when dining out or attending parties.0
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kenziestabes wrote: »Not to mention that, in major U.S. cities, food deserts are a thing. Basically, there are entire neighborhoods which don't have a grocery store of any kind, budget or otherwise. The local 7/11 might have rice and beans, but it definitely has instant ramen. People in these communities may also not have reliable vehicles necessary to drive to the (not so) nearest grocery store. They do, however, live in walking distance from a McDonalds. So the hidden cost of eating healthy is: gas/petrol, a bus fare, a train fare, paying for an uber/taxi, buying and maintaining a vehicle, and/or time. The further away you live from a grocery store, the higher that hidden cost is.
Also, as I mentioned in a fit of frustration at the conflation of two - or more - issues here:
You need a stove of some variety, utensils and somewhere to keep them, electricity or gas, and somewhere to keep leftovers if you're making something like rice and beans. Also TIME to do that cooking, so I hope you're not working two jobs. Ie: You better not be in a situation where you're living in: a dorm room, a rented room, a shelter, out of your vehicle on the street.
My grocery budget being a middleclass family of 4 is not higher now that I am more nutritionally aware/having lost weight is not higher than being a middle class family of 4 when I was obese. My grocery bill did not change with a change in my weight loss, though I think a higher proportion of it goes to luxury type produce (see also 7.00 asparagus mentioned above).
My grocery budget/bill IS higher than when I was a 23 year old recent college grad with 2 little kids and broke as heck. I could tell you right now what I bought then and it wasn't totally unhealthy crap -because there was no room in that budget for cookies and ice cream and chips, it's just that there was very little room for any produce that wasn't carrots, potatoes, and an onion or much meat that didn't come out of a can, either. Heck, some of the food even tasted pretty good because even poor I was pretty darned privileged (car, apartment, job, knew how to cook and had a place to do it and store it)
Is... the diet I ate them terrible? No. I eat most of those main dishes today. They're comfort food things.
Still much, much less healthy - even broadly - than what I eat now.4 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
It's very possible. I don't know where you're from, but in the USA when people lament the cost of eating healthy it is largely attributable to eating a diet consisting largely of very cheap packaged goods like Ramen or Mac 'n Cheese (as examples) and entering into the world of whole foods and cooking. A 24 pack case of Ramen Noodles costs about $2.50. The asparagus my wife just bought for dinner tonight was $6.99 for a small bundle. These are the things that many are looking at when they lament the price of eating healthier.
Basically transitioning from a junk diet to a largely whole foods, nutrient dense diet is expensive. Not to mention, people who live on these prepackaged foods are going to no nothing really about cooking with inexpensive staples like rice and grains and turning that into variety. It absolutely can be done, but most of these people have also never done much more than boil some water and throw a package of food into it. So that would be a whole other issue. My former boss ate Cheerios with milk for breakfast and a Cup 'O Noodles everyday for lunch and had takeout or fast food for dinner pretty much every night because he has no idea how to cook anything.
I never argued against any of that, I was specifically stating that the issue of poverty based food access, which I fully acknowledge are very real, and middle class bitching about expensive apples as an excuse for not eating well can both co-exist as realities.
I also take issue with your statement that transitioning from junk to whole foods is expensive. That entirely depends on what kind of junk the person is eating. A lot of middle class people are spending ENORMOUS sums of money on junk processed food. It's not by definition cheap to subsist on processed, prepared meals and snacks.
A woman complained to me about the astronomical cost of feeding her teenagers because of the amount of cereal, cookies, microwave popcorn, pizza pockets, pop tarts, granola bars, and pop that they go through. Her grocery bill was literally TEN times what ours is per person, and that wasn't including alcohol. That was just food.
So for some people, a switch to whole, healthy foods may be expensive, but for others, it could be a massive savings. Unhealthy junk isn't generally cheap. Only SOME unhealthy junk is very cheap. Likewise not all healthy food is expensive, but some of it very much is, like asparagus, which is why I haven't made asparagus since Christmas.
But it's totally apples to oranges to compare an expensive imported vegetable like asparagus to an ultra cheap junk food like ramen. Let's compare asparagus to equal weight in Bagel Bites and we'll see a different outcome.
Again, I'm not arguing at all against the very real problem of food insecurities and lack of access for healthy food among the poor. I would never ever say that this isn't an issue. I'm simply saying that there are tons of non impoverished people out there who could actually save money by choosing healthier options.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
It's very possible. I don't know where you're from, but in the USA when people lament the cost of eating healthy it is largely attributable to eating a diet consisting largely of very cheap packaged goods like Ramen or Mac 'n Cheese (as examples) and entering into the world of whole foods and cooking. A 24 pack case of Ramen Noodles costs about $2.50. The asparagus my wife just bought for dinner tonight was $6.99 for a small bundle. These are the things that many are looking at when they lament the price of eating healthier.
Basically transitioning from a junk diet to a largely whole foods, nutrient dense diet is expensive. Not to mention, people who live on these prepackaged foods are going to no nothing really about cooking with inexpensive staples like rice and grains and turning that into variety. It absolutely can be done, but most of these people have also never done much more than boil some water and throw a package of food into it. So that would be a whole other issue. My former boss ate Cheerios with milk for breakfast and a Cup 'O Noodles everyday for lunch and had takeout or fast food for dinner pretty much every night because he has no idea how to cook anything.
I never argued against any of that, I was specifically stating that the issue of poverty based food access, which I fully acknowledge are very real, and middle class bitching about expensive apples as an excuse for not eating well can both co-exist as realities.
I also take issue with your statement that transitioning from junk to whole foods is expensive. That entirely depends on what kind of junk the person is eating. A lot of middle class people are spending ENORMOUS sums of money on junk processed food. It's not by definition cheap to subsist on processed, prepared meals and snacks.
A woman complained to me about the astronomical cost of feeding her teenagers because of the amount of cereal, cookies, microwave popcorn, pizza pockets, pop tarts, granola bars, and pop that they go through. Her grocery bill was literally TEN times what ours is per person, and that wasn't including alcohol. That was just food.
So for some people, a switch to whole, healthy foods may be expensive, but for others, it could be a massive savings. Unhealthy junk isn't generally cheap. Only SOME unhealthy junk is very cheap. Likewise not all healthy food is expensive, but some of it very much is, like asparagus, which is why I haven't made asparagus since Christmas.
But it's totally apples to oranges to compare an expensive imported vegetable like asparagus to an ultra cheap junk food like ramen. Let's compare asparagus to equal weight in Bagel Bites and we'll see a different outcome.
Again, I'm not arguing at all against the very real problem of food insecurities and lack of access for healthy food among the poor. I would never ever say that this isn't an issue. I'm simply saying that there are tons of non impoverished people out there who could actually save money by choosing healthier options.
This is fair. My mom's grocery bill went up and the nutritional content went down when she had fewer people to feed on the same budget. Ie: The prepackaged tv dinners, snack cakes, and baked goods and snacks went from 'we get some of this once in a while' to buying a lot of it all the time.
The real thing I think is, though, most people who talk about the astronomical cost of feeding a family on a steady diet of convenience foods either:
Lack the time and skill/knowledge to cook cheaper foods that still taste good
or
b-) know danged well how to make the grocery bill go down but don't wanna (kinda like people complaining that they're fat and knowing how to make that reverse but not really being ready to do those things)
or
c-) both of the above.
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(For the curious), in my area you can usually get boneless skinless chicken breasts for close to $2/lb at several of the nearby main grocery stores, but it does require buying a fairly large package (something that might be a major hurdle if someone is living paycheck-to-paycheck).(For the curious), in my area you can usually get boneless skinless chicken breasts for close to $2/lb at several of the nearby main grocery stores, but it does require buying a fairly large package (something that might be a major hurdle if someone is living paycheck-to-paycheck).
Wow, $2 for a pound of meat! I do wonder what kind of life that animal had, and what the quality is. I know this is beside the question here, but it does make me wonder. Here, a pound of chicken breast is probably 5 Euro, and that's the cheap, poor stuff.kshama2001 wrote: »(For the curious), in my area you can usually get boneless skinless chicken breasts for close to $2/lb at several of the nearby main grocery stores, but it does require buying a fairly large package (something that might be a major hurdle if someone is living paycheck-to-paycheck).Wow, $2 for a pound of meat! I do wonder what kind of life that animal had, and what the quality is. I know this is beside the question here, but it does make me wonder. Here, a pound of chicken breast is probably 5 Euro, and that's the cheap, poor stuff.
I never see prices that low for boneless skinless chicken breasts here (South of Boston.) And very low prices for meat are generally "loss leaders" - sales the store loses money on designed to get people in the store.
But PP said "usually" so I'm guessing NOT a sale price.
for the curious...
Wegmans:
(note that the instacart prices for Wegmans are usually significantly marked up...more often than not they've been $2/lb when I've gone to get a pack)..
(the large pack of boneless, skinless thighs is higher per pound, and smaller packages are significantly more per pound)
It's not unreasonable though to think that it might be a (permanent) loss-leader-type item to pull people into the store to potentially impulse buy lots of expensive items. Their rotisserie chickens are also extremely cheap (and placed next to the super-ridiculously-over-priced store-made potato salad, etc). They also adopted Walmart's generic Rx pricing ($4/mo; $10/3mo) on a select drug list pretty early on. (in other words, they are indeed a believer in loss leaders).
ALDI:
maybe just the favorable logistics for being a massive global chain. Their stuff tends all-around tends to be high quality but very inexpensive.
PriceRite: (may have markup on instacart)
(quality can be an issue at this chain for various things. It's one place I refuse to buy frozen fish..almost all have so much TPP added that the thawed fish is incredibly soggy and all come from areas with known water quality and food safety issues. ..so not necessarily the greatest chicken sourcing).
My city has relatively short transit times throughout it's metropolitan area, including some of the outer suburbs and inner country with farms.. Food pricing probably benefits greatly from this.3
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