[Spooky23]

You’re probably a professional with a good wage. The working poor are too poor to have much and too rich to be poor and get benefits. They are cashflow constrained.

When I coached little league, we had parents who walked miles to games because the bus fare (1.50) for 3-4 people would push them over the edge. Vulture companies like dollar general exist because they sell consumer staples in smaller quantities at a slightly lower price, but much higher unit cost.

Costco uses an upfront membership to allow you to buy large units of products at a consistently good price. The consumer needs excess cash flow for it to work. Saving on toilet paper doesn’t work if I can’t make my car payment.

[tpmoney]

I’ve never been “need to stop at the food bank” poor thankfully, but I have been “dinner this week is rice and 50¢ frozen pot pies”, “living with 4 other people to make rent”, “boss I need more hours or I literally can’t afford the gas to come to work for the hours you’ve scheduled me” poor. And even in those times one of my very first purchases was a BJs membership (Costco like club) because it was absolutely cheaper to buy a lot of my groceries and food stuffs that way.

It is possible to be too poor to afford a membership club (even Sam’s Club). But you absolutely do not need to be a “professional with a good wage” to afford it or benefit from it.

[lotsofpulp]

Why are the dollar stores “vulture companies”? Costco and Trader Joes only puts their stores in or on the border of higher income neighborhoods. At least Dollar General is willing to locate their stores near poorer people.

Dollar General now has a similar profit margin to Costco:

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DG/dollar-general/...

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/profit...

Dollar Tree is slightly higher but much more volatile:

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DLTR/dollar-tree/p...

[jatora]

Shit I guess I'm out of touch lol

[gottorf]

No, you are not out of touch. Functionally everyone can afford a Costco membership and buy staples in bulk at a higher upfront but lower unit costs. The GP's comment about a family of four walking miles to a Little League game because they couldn't afford the bus fare is an extreme outlier.

There's a large overlap between people who cannot "afford" to shop at Costco and people who spend hundreds of dollars a month on scratch-offs. Whether or not someone shops at Costco is mostly a function of preferences and behavioral choices, not dollars.

[dullcrisp]

It’s a banana, Michael, what can it cost, $65?

[unlikelytomato]

Family and neighbors shared Costco memberships when I was growing up. It's still accessible today to anyone who wants it

[Zhenya]

These are not out of luck people if this is a long term Problem. These are people who are chronically bad at allocating resources.

Even if they could afford the 65$ membership (yes anyone car). They couldn’t afford the per package goods. Is this even alluring to them? They demonstrate poor basic economic understanding.

[Zhenya]

The downvotes are hilarious.

Probably the same people who dump money into scams fronting as homeless assistance organizations.

Of course, there is no counter argument, just emotion.