[gruez]

>Major grocers are more inclined to form cartels on price than to engage in organic competitive action.

Even if we take at face value that this is happening, their margins are famously low (ie. low single digits[1][2]) that any improvements are likely negligible. In the best case scenario where they're run as competently/efficiently as a normal grocery store, but don't take any profits, you'd be saving like 50 cents on a $10 pack of ground beef. Of course, all of this would go out the window if it's less efficient, either due to government incompetence[3], or lack of scale.

[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ACI/albertsons/pro...

[2] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KR/kroger/profit-m...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noe_Valley_public_toilet

[ceejayoz]

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noe_Valley_public_toilet

Mamdani has clearly taken lessons like these to heart.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/nyregion/how-to-build-a-r...

"The Transportation Department workers arrived at 9:15 p.m., right on time. Mr. Boyce and his crew were ready, having fitted the roof and rear wall panel 30 minutes before. By Monday, the structure was nearly complete. “This is all like synchronized swimming,” Mr. Mansylla said. “To build a structure in New York City in, what, 48 hours? That’s as fast as it gets.”

[gruez]

Your article doesn't say anything about cost, only that it got built fast. Every time the toilet example gets cited, the punchline is the cost, not how long it took, although that was appalling as well.

From the wikipedia article:

>The toilet's original proposed cost of $1.7 million inspired media coverage and criticism of the San Francisco government.

[h3lp]

From the wikipedia article:

   Site preparation began in February, 2024;[12] the prefabricated restroom was placed by a crane in March;[2] and installation was completed on April 22, 2024, costing about $200,000 to the city.

so maybe government did the right thing, after trying all the other possibilities.

[b112]

Plus, the cost of building includes a lot of permits, inspections, studies, and money to sldo so. Taxes too.

Was all this waived?

[ceejayoz]

I'm a firm believer that part of progressivism needs to be reining in these sorts of NIMBY obstacles.

[b112]

Environmental assessments are NIMBY? Well regardless, the point is it should be the same for everyone.

[ceejayoz]

> Environmental assessments are NIMBY?

It's a kiosk being added to a concrete sidewalk in the middle of Manhattan, by the city itself.

There must be a way to do projects of this small scale without spending years on paperwork.

[asdff]

The whole point is in principle these things are good ideas but in practice they are tools weaponized by NIMBYs. This is the fig leaf that keeps them around. "But why would you do away with environmental review???" As if you were to stab 55 gal drums of toxic waste and dump them into a river. But really you were trying to build an apartment as large as many other existing apartments in the middle of the city. Or in this case, install something on the sidewalk.

[ceejayoz]

Sure... because it was a prefab and still took two years at that cost.

[wahnfrieden]

The consumer cost of overcharges from price-fixed bread in Canada was estimated at 4-5 billion dollars. And that's just bread. Is that negligible?

Usually if someone steals a millionth of that, they go to jail for a very long time.

The same players are now under investigation for selling underweight meats.

[asdff]

The whole egg fiasco is as far as I am concerned the biggest proof of price gouging cartel behavior there is. And people assume it is normal.

Vast majority of product sold when inventory is low, they just go out of stock still at MSRP right to the last sku in the inventory. Then, you wait until more are available, also at that same price.

Really, why would prices go up for the eggs in this situation if not for gouging? Sure plenty of chickens were culled. But the remaining chickens aren't costing more than they did before the cull. Whoever is producing the remaining eggs being produced is producing them for the exact same overhead they have always been producing. Feed is still probably the same. Maybe cheaper with an excess of feed on the market needing to be sold and moved out of feedlots before the next crop comes in, from the chicken culling your competitors were doing. Water is still probably the same. Power is still probably the same. Staff are still getting the same pay. Property taxes are still the same. Really, who is getting the $10 from the $12 dozen of eggs? Probably some guys smoking cigars if we are being honest.

[gruez]

>Really, why would prices go up for the eggs in this situation if not for gouging? [...]

Supply and demand. Just like blocking the Strait of Hormuz doesn't make oil 2x more expensive to produce everywhere else in the world, you're still left with the problem that the world has ~20% less oil to go around. That means the price of oil gets bid up until it's high enough to convince 20% of oil consumers to stop using oil.

[asdff]

You say bid up. I say gouged. Potato Potato I guess.

[_whiteCaps_]

It literally happened here in Canada:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-bread-price-settleme...

> The class-action case was brought against a group of companies that includes Loblaw and the Weston companies, Metro, Walmart Canada, Giant Tiger, and Sobeys and its owner, Empire Co. Ltd.

> The plaintiffs allege those companies participated in a 14-year industry-wide price-fixing conspiracy between 2001 and 2015, leading to an artificial increase in packaged bread prices.

[asdff]

Margins being low is fine when you've scaled across a nation. Annual gross profit for Kroger is $34b.

[gruez]

>Annual gross profit for Kroger is $34b.

What's the point of this observation other than for shock value? Yes, when you multiply small percentage by a huge number, you're still left with a huge number. That doesn't mean it's suddenly worth doing unless you can make the argument that it scales easily.

[asdff]

It represents the privatized waste figure out of your grocery bill that is not going to the food you are bringing home.

[gruez]

See my previous comment:

>That doesn't mean it's suddenly worth doing unless you can make the argument that it scales easily.

Otherwise it's like saying "you know what everyone should do? Raise their own chickens! Sure, you might be only saving $1 or whatever a day, but multiply that 365 days per year and 340 million Americans, and that's billions we're all collectively saving!"

And no, running a grocery store isn't something that scales easily.

[asdff]

Well, let's check back in 2028 after running this pilot study.