Why is produce so expensive at the grocery store? (organic, healthy, tomatoes)
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I'm wondering if anybody that has worked at a grocery store has some insight into this, I can only guess.
Anyhow, here in California produce at the major grocery stores is dramatically more than the produce you can get at other small companies (still fairly large stores, but not big chains). Some of the price differences I've seen recently are:
Vine rip tomatoes: $.89 vs $3.99 lb
Zucchini: $.49 vs $1.49 lb
Cherries: $1.49 vs $4.99 lb
Fuji Apples: $.49 vs $1.89 lb
Red potato: $.33 vs $1.29 lb
Are the mark-ups at standard grocery stores that high?
Largely because it is perishable. That, and consumers have become so accustomed to fruits and vegetables made available all year, and will buy them out-of-season until it is also supply-and-demand. For example, look at the sales on strawberries this time of year, and keep that in mind come December when you pick up a quart for a fruit salad for a holiday meal.
I thought we had to be eating 'organic' to be healthy, but everything I've been reading lately, advises eating 'locally' and in-season. Makes good sense. The produce is so much cheaper, too, at the Farmers' Market or similar places. I wish we still had Mom 'n Pop grocery stores.
To answer the question: why so high in a grocery store? I imagine it is because so much of it goes bad, or arrives damaged, and gets tossed. The stores also don't seem to sell 100% of all of the produce that comes in, either, and they have to recoup such losses. I thought I understood from somewhere, that produce has the highest markup, and is where a grocery store makes a lot of its money?
Largely because it is perishable. That, and consumers have become so accustomed to fruits and vegetables made available all year, and will buy them out-of-season until it is also supply-and-demand. For example, look at the sales on strawberries this time of year, and keep that in mind come December when you pick up a quart for a fruit salad for a holiday meal.
I thought we had to be eating 'organic' to be healthy, but everything I've been reading lately, advises eating 'locally' and in-season. Makes good sense. The produce is so much cheaper, too, at the Farmers' Market or similar places. I wish we still had Mom 'n Pop grocery stores.
To answer the question: why so high in a grocery store? I imagine it is because so much of it goes bad, or arrives damaged, and gets tossed. The stores also don't seem to sell 100% of all of the produce that comes in, either, and they have to recoup such losses. I thought I understood from somewhere, that produce has the highest markup, and is where a grocery store makes a lot of its money?
And now the price of gas will also come in to play with the price of produce being shipped in.
You have to pay for shipping too. Right now strawberries that travel 3000 miles from California to the Carolinas are about $3-4 a quart. Factor in the stores' markup as a reseller and it adds to the price. Right now I pick my own berries at a small farm near me for $1.99 a quart and they are awesome. I Also get fresh from the ground pesticide free lettuce for $1 a head. Soon I will be getting corn, zucchini, squash, etc too. Buy as much local produce as you possibly can.
I have been buying "in season" fruits and vegetables only, and get great deals on locally grown vegetables. I planted melon plants in my garden 2 weeks ago, at Sam's club last night $2.68 for one. Bringing the produce and vegetables in from other parts of the country or imported raises the prices significantly.
I have been buying "in season" fruits and vegetables only, and get great deals on locally grown vegetables. I planted melon plants in my garden 2 weeks ago, at Sam's club last night $2.68 for one. Bringing the produce and vegetables in from other parts of the country or imported raises the prices significantly.
Also, buying locally will reduce the demand for fuel and hopefully reduce the prices. I try yo buy everything as close to home as possible now.
Just to note, this isn't an issue of buying only in season veggies/fruits. The places I shop also sell imports (from south America) and they are at least half the price seen at the grocery store.
The cheapest stuff is from California or Mexico though (Mexico is pretty much "local").
I'm wondering if anybody that has worked at a grocery store has some insight into this, I can only guess.
Anyhow, here in California produce at the major grocery stores is dramatically more than the produce you can get at other small companies (still fairly large stores, but not big chains). Some of the price differences I've seen recently are:
Vine rip tomatoes: $.89 vs $3.99 lb
Zucchini: $.49 vs $1.49 lb
Cherries: $1.49 vs $4.99 lb
Fuji Apples: $.49 vs $1.89 lb
Red potato: $.33 vs $1.29 lb
Are the mark-ups at standard grocery stores that high?
I never understood that either when I lived in Ca. They grow most of the stuff there in the winter, I never understood why it was so expensive at the grocery store when its grown just down the street (figuratively). I ended up finding smaller vegtable/produce stores i.e. Sprouts tended to have the cheaper produce. I think that maybe the grocery store chains have to buy in bulk from wholesalers to supply the company nationwide and have to pay more and maybe the smaller stores buy direct from the farmers? Who knows. Drove me crazy though, while I lived there.
I never understood that either when I lived in Ca. They grow most of the stuff there in the winter, I never understood why it was so expensive at the grocery store when its grown just down the street (figuratively). I ended up finding smaller vegtable/produce stores i.e. Sprouts tended to have the cheaper produce. I think that maybe the grocery store chains have to buy in bulk from wholesalers to supply the company nationwide and have to pay more and maybe the smaller stores buy direct from the farmers? Who knows. Drove me crazy though, while I lived there.
That's about right. Pretty similar in N and S Carolina.
-- It costs a lot of money in gas, wages, and equipment upkeep to get the produce from the fields to the store displays.
-- It costs a lot of money out of season, including import tariffs, to truck and fly and then truck the produce from Mexican and Chilean fields to the store displays.
-- The grocery stores that are publicly owned (shareholder companies) are required by incorporation bylaws to provide profit to the shareholders first.
-- Every time there's a disease scare, tons and tons of food must be gathered (causing expenses to gather) and destroyed (costing destroying expenses), and there's additional loss of revenue from the vanished produce, and all that has to be made up for at every step in the distribution chain.
Makes me nostalgic for the days when my mother called out that dinner would be ready in 10 minutes, and I went to the field and picked four perfect, ripe tomatoes hot in the summer sun...
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Why is produce so expensive?
