You could make it your self for the cost of soybeans basically. It's a cheap food sold as a gourmet item because it's rare. Like a lot of other fermented foods.
> It's a cheap food sold as a gourmet item because it's rare.
This statement is _entirely_ dependent upon where you live. If you have lots of East/SouthEast Asian immigrants in your community, it will be a regular commodity in any supermarket -- "ethnic" or not. Lots of readers here live in the Bay Area. A regular block of 300/400g fresh tofu is probably cheap as chips in their local supermarket.
> Like a lot of _other_ fermented foods.
Are you implying that tofu is a fermented food? It is not. (FYI: In Chinese food culture, there is something called fermented tofu [and even stinky tofu], but that is different than non-fermented tofu.)