[esilver]

A year ago I stopped going to Whole Foods and started buying packaged foods at Trader Joe’s and produce at Berkeley Bowl. My food spending halved.

Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Lidl, and to a lesser-extent Costco, are revolutionizing the grocery business in much the same that Walmart and the A&P did. Except they sell high-quality store brands and offer fewer, better choices to customers with less in-store cruft.

Americans spend a smaller proportion of their income on food now than they did a generation ago; roughly 10% now compared to 17.5% in 1960 [0]. It’s exciting to imagine that average falling to 5%.

And it’s even more exciting to imagine other consumer spending categories falling relative to income, e.g., transportation and housing.

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/02/389578089/yo...