At the stores we go to, there’s hamburger, ground chuck, ground round, ground sirloin, all with different fat contents. It wouldn’t surprise me if “hamburger” at different stores had different fat content, which would make it harder to compare prices. And salinqmind might have actually bought ground round or ground chuck.
When I invested in Peapod (online grocery delivery) a long time ago, one thing I learned (assuming I was getting good info) was that grocery chains have two or three different pricing bands that are applied to different stores. Some items would be the same price across all bands, but some would be different, and so one band would have higher prices on those products that had a variance, and another band would have lower prices. Which band was used in a store depended on the area and the presence of competition. In the Chicago area, until recently, we were lucky to have two large chains (Dominicks and Jewel) duking it out for market share for decades, so when two competing stores were comparatively close together, they used the lowest pricing band in those stores.
Peapod would advertise that they sold their products at Jewel prices (Jewel was a partner for a long time), but I noticed that a pack of Cold Eeze was more expensive on Peapod than in my neighborhood Jewel. When I inquired about it, I was told that different Jewels have different prices, and Peapod simply was priced according to the most expensive pricing band.
To be precise, my pricing was for ground chuck.
Things change over time, but my perception is that VERY rich and VERY poor urban neighborhoods tend not to have large supermarket chain stores. Those stores are located in middle and upper middle class neighborhoods.
Hence, the rich AND the poor pay more for their groceries than I do.
My suspicion is that prices on the same items are mostly similar, but that the product mix changes pretty drastically between neighborhoods.
For example, one of the wealthier parts of the DFW Metroplex used to be western Plano. The Wal-Mart there has probably 18 varieties of olive oil, and a surprisingly good craft beer selection.
The Wal-Mart by me (area with extremely low income apartments and fairly wealthy homes) has maybe a half-dozen varieties of olive oil, and a beer section centered around Bud/Miller and lower-cost brands like Iron Reserve and Busch.
I doubt a six-pack of straight Budweiser is different by more than $1 between them though.
I would consider a buck on a Bud 6-pack to be a pretty hefty difference.
One of the interesting things about the cheap store is their steak. It is noticeably cheaper than the middle ground store down the street. But the meat never says the grade, just 'USDA inspected top sirloin" and it is clearly select at best. The stuff in the middle store is almost always choice. When they do have select, it is actually cheaper than the ungraded stuff in the cheap store. But on most days if you want to get whatever cut for the cheapest you can,in a single stop, the cheap store is the way to go.
When I lived in the city the grocery store that was within walking distance was way higher than the one I had to drive too. It was also smaller and nastier (older and dirty looking) inside.
People in the neighborhood who didn’t have cars would offer those of us with cars part of their food stamps to take them grocery shopping. It was well worth it to them to give somebody $10 - $20 worth of food for the ride and savings.
I think the local store was taking advantage knowing that most of the people who shopped there had no other option.
My experience (personal and professional) is sort of a cross-section of these responses.
Most areas will have at least one or two levels of grocery store, if not three or four (from bargain-bin wholesale places to Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and local specialty stores). So it’s hard to say that one socioeconomic area has X vs another’s Y. In general, though, food stores in ghetto and rough areas have higher average prices, in part because they have a captive shopping audience. (This is a little less true in recent decades, but only a little.)
It’s also not true that middle and slightly upscale shoppers are indifferent to pricing. They have somewhat different expectations, but shop for price and value within their band.
What stores gain as they go up the scale in location and clientele is selection - everyone has Kraft Mac and Cheese at probably much the same price. But only upscale suburban stores will have the pricier higher-quality variants. Does this make them “more expensive”? I’d say no.
One of the most predatory categories of grocery are the “price chopper,” warehouse, “Sav-R” type places, which locate in lower economic regions and split their offerings between a tier of notably inexpensive offerings (often off-brand crap like generic box mac’n’cheeseoid)… but then have significantly higher prices on everything else. There is such a store nearby that I will hit if I am going to one or two of its companions (Harbor Freight Tools, UPS drop-off store, etc.). They have good prices on a small number of things I buy, but basically retail/no discount on many, many others that my good-neighborhood/slightly upscale grocery has at lower prices all the time.
It’s like everything else in the consumer world. If you’re poor, you get screwed extra. If you’re ignorant, you get screwed. And if you just get tired of battling every day over things like the price of milk, bread and canned soup, you get screwed. Those in better areas can shop without nearly so much worry, because in addition to having more to spend, their stores don’t tend to be laden with shopping booby traps and deceptive come-ons.
My ritzy right- off-the-metro Giant is a lot more expensive than the suburban one we sometimes go to. Rotisserie chickens, for example, cost $8.99 at mine and $4.99 at theirs. I’ve never done a side by side of other items, but whenever I go to the suburban one I’m surprised at the prices.
I think it’s a supply and demand thing. Suburban people shop by price. City people (here) often have little storage space and no cars, so they are likely to be picking up food they need in order to eat that night.
Chains can and do have different shelf prices for the same items in different store locations.
I do not mean something like “north side of Chicago” vs “north end of San Francisco”. I can personally attest that CVS does this with two “north side of Chicago” stores that are half a mile apart.
This here.
We have two grocery stores here, HEB and Central Market. Central Market is owned by HEB, but is a Whole Foods clone.
A bottle of exactly the same bottle of wine is $2-$3 more expensive in the fancy pants place.
When I worked for a major competitor of Safeway, we had a different version of the ad for every “cluster” of three or four stores (on average). Over 75 versions for ~350 stores.
There were over ~25 regular pricing “zones” which aren’t actually geographic areas, but more demographic and competitor driven. The “versioning” of the circulars was driven largely by the regular pricing zones. So one version would have Tropicana on sale 2 for $5 (regularly $3.49). Another version would be 2 for $5 (regularly $3.19). Other times the sale price would vary between versions. Edy’s 64oz, Buy one Get one Free in the store where regular price is $6.49. But a flat $2.99 where the regular price is $4.99.
One reason we insisted on the loyalty cards was that it enabled us to know how much overlap there was in the clientele of nearby stores. Helped us gauge how much risk there was of pissing off or just confusing customers.
The staples such as milk, bread, and pastas are covered by EBT/WIC/whatever your area calls government assistance. The smaller stores in the bad areas are mostly selling these items to recipients of the aforementioned aid programs. The buyers are not sensitive to the prices, as the gov’t picks up the tab.
EBT is not the same thing as WIC. EBT cards are like a (small) debit account that can only be used for any unprepared food items (no diapers or hot deli items). Buy cheap stuff and it goes further, buy expensive stuff and it goes quick.
WIC provides supplemental food for pregnant women and small children. WIC does work as a voucher system, where specific items are covered up to maximum price. It covers specific high nutrition foods- milk, eggs, peanut butter, etc.
I’m fascinated with some of the information shared in this thread. Grocery stores have pricing zones. I never knew that. thank you for sharing.
I’ve started keeping my grocery receipts. Modern receipts print out what the item is and makes it easy to price compare. The old receipts 20 years ago mostly listed prices and codes.
It occurred to me that bar codes and the associated pricing database makes variable pricing easier. Each pricing zone would look up a different price in the database. quite simple.
Neither WIC nor SNAP works that way. In each case, you get a budget, and you have to make it last. WIC is for Women, Infants and Children and only covers very specific items like milk, eggs, cereal, formula, certain inexpensive proteins like peanut butter or dried beans. When you use up your alloted funds they are gone.
example program instructions:
“The WIC foods chosen must not cost more than the “Not to Exceed” amount of the WIC check. If the cost is more, select a less expensive brand to reduce the total cost of the purchase. Additional funds cannot be added.”
https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/4008/#wic15
SNAP is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (traditional “food stamps”) and can be used for a wider range of items but there are still many exclusions. It works the same way - you get a set budget and have to make it last.
High prices in shabby stores screw people receiving food benefits same as everyone else.
(EBT refers to the method of delivering benefits – by Electronic Benefits Transfer aka a debit card – not to the type of benefit received.)
Annnd ninja’d by even sven
Sure, but is that same bottle of wine differently priced in different HEB stores across town?
Central Market isn’t exactly the best comparison in that case, being a sort of gourmet/foodie/fancy-pants place where most everything is expensive relative to the normal grocery store version, even for the same exact product.
I’d bet I could go to the Central Market in Plano and if I could find the same item at the Super Wal-Mart across the street (literally!), it would be cheaper at Wal-Mart. Same part of town exactly- just different stores.
I think Food Giant keeps their medicine behind the counter at every location. I recently moved out of Little Rock proper and I hit the Food Giant in Bryant for something to soothe my throat and everything was behind the customer service desk. The same is true of the Food Giant on Highway 5. But, you’re right, we used to shop at the Food Giant on Baseline Road and it was pretty nice. I like to shop at Fresh Market for meats, fruits, and vegetables and on those items I find they’re priced competitively. But they’re out of my way so I don’t tend to go there very often.
I’m not convinced that the food in the bad parts of the neighborhood are going to be cheaper. If I went to City Market on Colonel Glenn Road off of University I’d have to pay a lot more for a 12 pack of Coca-Cola or a frozen pizza than I would have at a nearby Kroger.