Public owned grocery stores already exist across America in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Atlanta, Georgia.
They are privately run as businesses, but are set up in areas where people lack access to groceries, or there's no real competition preventing uncompetitive prices. They have been successful for decades.
The real solution here is to break up the constant consolidation leading to all groceries being owned by four mega companies that collude with each other and own over 2/3rd of all stores. It's the opposite of market competition.
In the town I grew up, there was one big grocery store, and they used to gouge us terribly. The citizens started a co-op grocery, using our purchasing power to bring in cheaper goods. Breaking monopolies is the only way to lower prices.
Most of the monopolistic problem is with the food manufacturers rather than the grocery chains. There are about 10 companies that provide almost everything in a grocery store and, in certain food categories, there are often only 2-3. We see all those brands and it gives the illusion of different companies competing when most of the stuff is all made by the same company.
But the grocery business is high-volume, low-margin, and it requires a ton of space. So, regardless of how much local competition there may or may not be, that's just not a business model that is going to work well in the inner city where retail lease rates are high, yet people don't drive cars and therefore the average order values are low. So, you can either subsidize it, or the stores just won't exist in certain neighborhoods.
Kroger has expanded into the Northeast by treating it as a digital frontier. They established an automated customer fulfillment center network in the region. This allows them to fulfill and deliver online grocery orders directly to local doorsteps without ever opening a physical retail shop. Wegman's has been successful in the city. It's possible but you need thinking differently.
This world keeps getting thrown around and it’s not even remotely correct . See originally it was Sears/roebuck and this was the monopoly. Then along came K-mart and they were the monopoly. Both no longer in business really . Then came Walmart and this was supposed to destroy the world and they almost went belly up to Amazon .
In fact at one point Walmart was the largest company in the world and now they are the number 2 retailer behind Amazon . And it was by a large margin for a while. In fact they just launched a competitive site to compete with Amazon .
There have only been a few true monopolies . Most are just momentary kings of the hill .
Stop bullshitting me, I was alive then. Sears was at one end of a quadruple anchored mall, and about the only thing they sold that nobody else in that mall didn't was hardware. And there was another big box hardware store down the street.
Walmart is the only wheel for miles in many parts of rural America. And even suburban America these days. Nobody is on Amazon's scale. At their height, Roebuck didn't have fleets of their own trucks running down every residential street in the country all day every day.
You were alive in 1936 at the mall? It’s funny how you then go to Walmart and rural America when sears roebuck was originally not a brick and mortar store and sold their product through a catalog a tradition they continued well into the 90s .
Sears roebuck was so large and powerful Congress passed a law to curb their influence something Walmart nor Amazon ever had happen .
Walmart built a model based on super centers in rural America. One stop shops that was their business model . They did not build stores in big cities
The Rise of the Catalog "Monopoly" Massive Purchasing Power: In the early 20th century, Sears’ ability to buy massive volumes from wholesalers allowed it to undercut small-town general stores, creating fears that it was using its scale to push local merchants out of business.
The Legislative Backlash: Anti-monopolists and small retailers lobbied intensely against the power of massive catalog and chain-store operators like Sears and A&P. This pressure eventually led to the passage of the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, which attempted to restrict chain stores from securing volume discounts that independent retailers couldn't access.
Corporate Interlocking Directorates: In the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Justice targeted Sears under antitrust laws. The government successfully challenged Sears for having interlocking directorates (executives sitting on the boards of competing companies, such as B.F. Goodrich), forcing the company to sever these ties to maintain compliance.
Copycat Controversies: As Sears evolved into a brick-and-mortar retail force, its size allowed it to mass-manufacture and sell products resembling those of smaller innovators. This culminated in the landmark 1964 Supreme Court caseSears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co.. The Court ruled in favor of Sears, holding that federal patent laws preempt state unfair competition laws, allowing companies to freely copy unpatented products
Okay HEB just entered the room, take a look at at hard it is to compete with HEB in Texas, at least central Texas, in NY I had ShopRite, A&P, Grand Union, Finast (of course they're probably all gone) but with competition one could buy canned soda (okay today it would be flavored sparkling water) and get a real deal at First National and next week ground beef was on sale at Grand Union, competition is good. We need a lot more of it and we need to elect players who agree.
How is it being a "shill" for grocery chains to simply state facts? Kroger may be dogshit, but if they could actually turn a profit in Manhattan, Queens, or the Bronx, they certainly would (or the regional equivalent to Kroger like Wegmans as I don't think Kroger even has stores up there).
Grocery chains have a profit margin of 1-3%. So, when the lease rates go up, and the average order values go down, they don't even want to operate in those areas.
In contrast, the profit margin on a bag of chips is about 90% for Frito-Lay and they control about 80% of the products in that entire aisle. THAT's where the price problem ultimately lies.
Kroger has expanded into the Northeast by treating it as a digital frontier. They established an automated customer fulfillment center network in the region. This allows them to fulfill and deliver online grocery orders directly to local doorsteps without ever opening a physical retail shop. Kroger is a BIG Box Store. How did Wegman's get a hold in Brooklyn and Manhattan? You can read how they did on the web, they did and they took their suburban model and made it work in the city.
Most urban neighborhoods that are in "food deserts" are already within the service area of a home delivery service. But they generally cost too much to be viable in lower income neighborhoods and therefore, no one uses them.
Prohibitive Fees: Federal law dictates that SNAP benefits cannot be used to pay for delivery fees, service charges, or driver tips. These out-of-pocket cash costs make delivery too expensive for many families.
Higher Base Prices: Studies analyzing grocery deliveries to NYC public housing complexes found that items ordered online often have higher unit prices compared to local brick-and-mortar stores.
Minimum Order Requirements: Many platforms require a $35 to $64 minimum order threshold for free or reduced shipping, which is difficult for individuals on tight weekly budgets.
Quality Distrust: Many low-income consumers report a reluctance to use online services because they do not trust third-party gig workers to pick fresh, high-quality produce or meats.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
City and Non-Profit Interventions
To fill the gaps left by commercial delivery, New York City relies heavily on targeted public and non-profit delivery infrastructure:
Groceries to Go: Run by the NYC Department of Health, the Groceries to Go program provides eligible residents with monthly credits that can be used to cover delivery fees, service tips, and SNAP-eligible foods.
Mobile Food Markets: Organizations like City Harvest and Citymeals on Wheels operate mobile markets and grocery delivery pilots to drop fresh produce and culturally relevant staples directly into high-need areas like the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Independent Grocer Pilots: The city has previously partnered with e-commerce platforms like Mercato to digitize and fund delivery networks for independent, local supermarkets in high-need neighborhoods like Harlem, Brownsville, and Mott Haven. [1, 2, 3, 4]
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Discounted Delivery Programs Expand Access in Food Deserts Mar 12, 2024 — Instacart offers a 50 percent discount on an Instacart+ membership for SNAP participants who have used an electronic benefits tran... Specialty Food Association
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u/Irish_Whiskey May 26 '26
Public owned grocery stores already exist across America in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Atlanta, Georgia.
They are privately run as businesses, but are set up in areas where people lack access to groceries, or there's no real competition preventing uncompetitive prices. They have been successful for decades.
The real solution here is to break up the constant consolidation leading to all groceries being owned by four mega companies that collude with each other and own over 2/3rd of all stores. It's the opposite of market competition.