[detritus]

Posts like this are why I read HN comments first.

Posts like this remind we how much better it is to be as part of a large trading bloc to be able to easily order/sample these sort of things, rather than it likely being a pain in the arse to get locally.

[cogman10]

IDK if it'd apply here, but there are technically laws on the books in the US against price and purchase discrimination for grocers. It was specifically one of the things Lina Khan was investigating on the way out of office and something I believe she's going to be using for the NYC grocery stores.

A food seller isn't allowed to cut out a grocer because they are too small. However, I believe they get around this today by having minimum order sizes that make it impossible for a small grocer to handle.

That's effectively how my small hometown grocer was driven out of business. The suppliers refused to work with them because they wanted them to order huge amounts of product that wouldn't work for my hometown with 300 people. So, the people running the store ended up just buying products from either costco or another grocery store a town over. The price hike they had to apply was simply too much for the local folk who ultimately also went to the nearby towns to save money instead of shopping locally.

[bryceacc]

Greatly detailed here:

https://youtu.be/odhVF_xLIQA?t=338

In this case, Pepsi has reduced promotions and increased wholesale cost for "small groceries" which in this case was a regional grocer with ~1000 of stores across 10 states. If Pepsi is strong arming regional giants like that, imagine how the ant of a real local grocer feels. They are algorithmically getting destroyed

[fakedang]

And I'm guessing, without a local grocery store at the very least, your hometown is also a dying entity?

[cogman10]

It's mixed. Several people ended up moving back as some of the older population died off. One new resident retired there and is running a mini-grocery store now as both a hobby and for some of the hunters that come through the town.

But the town is dying/dead. There's really only 1 major business in town and the school. It's surrounded by farm land.

In my father's day, it had everything from a hardware store, full service garage, a bowling ally, movie theater, restaurant, and dance hall. All that is gone now.

In my youth the restaurant and grocery store were still around. You had to call ahead to the restaurant as they would only open in a call ahead fashion.

[xarope]

can't several small hometown grocers get together to be able to make that volume/quantity? Surely that would be better than just buying from costco?

[robotbikes]

A lot of small co-op groceries and even food co-ops that are more like ordering clubs used to use a company called UNFI to put in their orders but I think they focused more on organic and other high end items but they were willing to service smaller stores so yeah it's probable. There was also IGA (independent grocers association) but I think most of the stores associated with that brand/network locally have closed down so not sure if it's a thing anymore. Many of the independent convenience stores here stock almost all of their groceries at Aldi.

[projektfu]

I lived in a town with only IGA and Piggly-Wiggly. (And Dollar General, of course). IGA was the best. I really appreciate what they were doing. It appears to still exist.

https://www.iga.com/about

[frereubu]

Parent comment said their hometown had 300 people, which I can't imagine would support more than one or, at most, two grocery stores.

[tirant]

That’s exactly what small distributors are for.

[eru]

It seems entirely reasonable to me to quote larger prices per item, even much larger prices, for smaller quantities. Or even outright refuse to sell in small quantities.

I mean, my grocer doesn't sell individual beans either. So why should wholesalers be forced?

[lores]

They don't? I'm in London, and my local grocer will happily sell me one bean if I want. I've bought 1 bird chilli several times.

[AlBugdy]

Sure, if the chili peppers or the beans are not packaged, you could buy as little as you want. Sometimes you might get funny looks, sometimes they'll give you the bean for free as it's not worth the hassle to sell an individual bean.

But what about prepackaged beans, like 500 gram pack? You can't open the package and expect to pay for part of it. Sometimes the beans are packaged by the grocery store with their branding. That's the same as not letting you buy an individual bean.

[eru]

And it's great that lores found a grocer that caters to their needs. Even less of a reason to make a law to force everyone to do so.