Laura Hazard Owen: We need a Wirecutter for groceries. “What if local news organizations around the country made it part of their mission to help readers compare grocery prices around town?”
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Discussion 9 comments
We've had Consumer Reports for almost a century now.
If some gazillionaire actually wanted to do some good, they'd pony up so that CR could take down their paywall.
For what it’s worth, you can access Consumer Reports online through most libraries in the US and Canada.
I mean, this is assuming there are grocery prices to compare around town. There's one grocery store in town here. The next nearest is 75 min away, at least on the US side. (I live near the Canadian border; there's two plus a not-Super Walmart Walmart on the Canadian side, but they all come to the US to shop anyway.)
Why do they come to the U.S. to buy groceries? Are they cheaper on this side of the border?
Wirecutter gets a small slice of what you spend when you buy via their recommendation links.
How would they get paid by your local grocery store?
Not quite consumer reports but Consumer Checkbook's evaluation follows my gut sense for local grocery stores. Not sure what areas they have covered
https://www.checkbook.org/puget-sound-area/supermarkets/articles/Which-Grocery-Stores-Offer-the-Best-Prices-and-Quality-2058
For a lot of folks in rural America there is no need. There's usually a small local bodega, gas station, or mom&pop grocery store....or a 1.5-3 hour drive to a Walmart. When my in-laws moved from rural WV to college-town GA the sheer ability TO comparison shop itself was the real luxury.
This function already exists, on Instacart, and it is my perpetual personal comparison-shopping torment -- like the .5 circle of hell. (Near the virtuous pagans and unbaptized, which is spot-on.) Problem is, when you live in a large urban area and *can* check prices at a dozen local grocery stores, it feels like maybe you *should.* The programmer who writes an Instacart optimizing tool, like Camel Camel Camel but I can put in my whole grocery list and it tells me what store to order from -- that programmer will be my forever hero.
What I've learned from my Instacart labors are that grocery prices are wildly, absurdly variable: same jar of jam can be 3 bucks one place, 8 bucks at a store down the street. And there's a PhD to be written on class-based pricing dynamics, e.g., organic milk is reliably cheaper at grocery stores in 'fancy' areas (where it's presumably a loss-leading staple?) and more expensive at stores in lower-income neighborhoods.
After few years of stay-at-home parenting and home economics, I observed the same thing: if you want affordable organic milk, go where the market demands it- the fancy neighborhoods. Funny.
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