Why are food costs so high in Savannah & SC coastal area? (Macon: live, store)

[TootsieWootsie]

Can anyone explain why the food costs--as in grocery store food costs--are 107 on sperlingsbestplaces.com when 100 is the norm? That means that food costs in the Savannah area are way over normal. Why?
I can understand price gouging in Hilton Head, SC, but why Savannah? Isn't much food grown around the southern end of Georgia? I should think so, but I'm not there to testify to this.
Can anyone explain this oddity to me? Is it because it is a tourist area? That is the only logical explanation I can think of.

[Just Plain Al]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

Can anyone explain why the food costs--as in grocery store food costs--are 107 on sperlingsbestplaces.com when 100 is the norm? That means that food costs in the Savannah area are way over normal. Why?
I can understand price gouging in Hilton Head, SC, but why Savannah? Isn't much food grown around the southern end of Georgia? I should think so, but I'm not there to testify to this.
Can anyone explain this oddity to me? Is it because it is a tourist area? That is the only logical explanation I can think of.

And the point of this exercise would be...?
Does the food cost govern where you would live?
Just askin', is all.

I got waaay more important things to do then analyse food costs.

[Padgett2]

No, not much food, with the exception of turnips and collards, is grown in the Low Country Area. It's too hot. We raise timber, tobacco, peanuts and cotton. There are some strawberry fields and tomatoes in season, but just about every thing is trucked in. The soil is not the most productive either. It was farmed for too many years by farmers that really didn't understand conservation.

We just don't have the big farms like they do in California. Growing conditions just aren't the same.

[TootsieWootsie]

Thanks, Padgett2, that explains it totally. Soil has been tilled in places like Greece so much that they can no longer grow decent crops (except figs seem to like the over-tilled soil). I was thinking that Georgia has great growing soil, but maybe not anymore. And I didn't realize it was that hot in the Low Country--beautiful country, anyway (hey! I watch Paula Deen's show..haha!). Your food costs there are really outrageously high considering what they are all over the majority of the U.S.A.
In cities like Las Vegas--where nothing is grown locally--it makes sense, but I figured your area would be able to grow more than they do. Figured wrong, and thanks for setting me straight.

[FFG3]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

Can anyone explain why the food costs--as in grocery store food costs--are 107 on sperlingsbestplaces.com when 100 is the norm? That means that food costs in the Savannah area are way over normal. Why?
I can understand price gouging in Hilton Head, SC, but why Savannah? Isn't much food grown around the southern end of Georgia? I should think so, but I'm not there to testify to this.
Can anyone explain this oddity to me? Is it because it is a tourist area? That is the only logical explanation I can think of.

SWGA is the main farming area and peanuts, cotton and corn are the main crops. SoyBeans are grown sometimes when the prices are right.

Statesboro area is a major farming area which is 1 hour west of Savannah but it is the same crops mentioned above. Vidalia onions are the big crop in a 5 county area about 90 miles west of Savannah.

There aren't a lot of big vegatable farms in Georgia.

[Padgett2]

It's not just a matter of what is grown, it's the processing plants, canneries and places like that. There is just not enough grown to make building them worthwhile.

The so-called "Piedmont" area, around Macon probably has the best soil. In the Low Country coastal area, a lot of the soil is sandy and acid.

[ellie]

Food's expensive here?

Truthfully, we've never had such great soil. It's sandy and requires a lot of fertilizer, etc. There's also a layer of hardpan beneath many agricultural areas that prevents good drainage and the high rate of precipitation and heat causes nutrients to rapidly leach out. I learned this from a soil scientist. It has nothing to do with "spent" soil or tourism.

[TootsieWootsie]

Boy! was my perception of Georgia soil off-base. I always saw Georgia as this great agricultural State. Now I know better. Thanks for explaining. Still a neat State.

[FFG3]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

Boy! was my perception of Georgia soil off-base. I always saw Georgia as this great agricultural State. Now I know better. Thanks for explaining. Still a neat State.

You read wrong. GA is a MAJOR agriculture state. The largest producer of peanuts and one of the largest producers of cotton and corn. The soil is excellent in southwest GA, middle GA, parts of southeast GA and parts of North GA.

Vegetables is not a major crop in Georgia but it has nothing to do with the soil. It has to do with the climate.

[ellie]

Originally Posted by FFG3

You read wrong. GA is a MAJOR agriculture state. The largest producer of peanuts and one of the largest producers of cotton and corn. The soil is excellent in southwest GA, middle GA, parts of southeast GA and parts of North GA.

Vegetables is not a major crop in Georgia but it has nothing to do with the soil. It has to do with the climate.

I'll have to correct myself, as well, here. The soil in the coastal plain, around Savannah, is relatively poor. Farther west and north, things are different. I should have been more specific.