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2. The statistic is referring to spending on groceries, but not to spendings on food. Americans consume a significant higher percentage of their food away from home. Just 50% of the food bill is spend on food from grocery stores. This number is significant higher in Europe, around 70 - 80%. Europeans buy per capita distinctly more food at grocery stores than Americans.
yes europeans tend to cook their own meals at home more often
cost aside, I find shopping easier in the US, I can find more variety and food from all over the world. In europe, it was mostly the selection that the locals ate, or whatever I found in english or knew how to cook... I'm sure if I knew the local language, I could shop at other places...
I think this might be where the article went wrong, they compared "grocery" stores in the US to "grocery" stores elsewhere in world... I can buy tires/guns/clothes in a US grocery store, I can buy almost strictly food in other place's grocery stores... without hitting up multiple places and knowing the language to get around, shopping is more time consuming/involved over there
FYI, Western Europe does very badly in phone services and internet, Northern and Eastern Europe do way better, while WE clearly limps behind and tries to do catch up.
Prove it.
And we stink compared to all of Europe and the rest of the developed world.
Question, do you the Fed Govt has any role in regulating to protect us consumers, or just the wonderful unfettered corporatist lobbying crap we get now cause coporations fund elections and expect payoffs?
I think this might be where the article went wrong, they compared "grocery" stores in the US to "grocery" stores elsewhere in world... I can buy tires/guns/clothes in a US grocery store, I can buy almost strictly food in other place's grocery stores... without hitting up multiple places and knowing the language to get around, shopping is more time consuming/involved over there
Such a quintessential typical American statement. How is the quality of the food? Organic? Preservatives, anti-biotics, GMO, or do you even care.
Americans will just never accept that anything can be done better except their way. Ugh.
Such a quintessential typical American statement. How is the quality of the food? Organic? Preservatives, anti-biotics, GMO, or do you even care.
Americans will just never accept that anything can be done better except their way. Ugh.
I get what you are saying ,and I have said that to a degree as well about US grocery stores...re food additives and bromate etc. Corn syrup in too many foods. Corn syrup is slipping into more foods in Canada now as well. Let's not forget the illusion of choice.
However this is mainly the massive change grocery stores. There are many grocery stores, that offer healthier choices and a good variety of goods.
So is shopping well, meaning healthier and better quality easier in some places in the world? Or is it easier in the US?
My answer is that it is easier elsewhere, but it's not impossible in the US. Labelling is very good in the US so again it really gets down to the person.
Whoever talks of the superiority of European meat products should have to try to choke down a six pack of Tesco chicken nuggets. For all that they smelled pretty good, dang those were vile.
I do think that, moving target and all, there's a lot of overlap between US and UK grocery shopping. Wegmans and Marks & Spencers are pretty much brothers from another mother. And Walmart is Asda's corporate overlord. Albertson's/Safeway and Kroger are kin to Tesco and Sainsbury. I do give the edge to the UK for good cheap mass market bread- likely comes from being effectively France-adjacent-and can't understand why they turn around and use the equivalent of Wonderbread or Bimbo for so many of their grab-and-go sandwiches.
I'm in Florida, where the default grocery store is Publix, and part of their success comes from dialing in that last 20% of product selection to local tastes. Which since 70% of Floridians were born Somewhere Else, they'll invite you to celebrate Fat Tuesday with king cake, mojitos, and paczki because that's just how the region rolls.
I think this might be where the article went wrong, they compared "grocery" stores in the US to "grocery" stores elsewhere in world... I can buy tires/guns/clothes in a US grocery store, I can buy almost strictly food in other place's grocery stores... without hitting up multiple places and knowing the language to get around, shopping is more time consuming/involved over there
Why on earth would I (or most other Americans) want to buy tires, guns, and clothes in a grocery store? People go to a grocery store for...groceries. Clothing can be bought in clothing stores or online. Tires? Guns? I don't even want to see a gun, let alone be in the same store with them when I'm buying groceries.
Now that I've read on here about places like Kroger, Publix, etc. I just wish we had them in my part of the country. If they really do have organic, without additives, I'd be there doing my shopping. As it is, we can barely find fresh produce here in winter--yesterday I had to return a rutabaga that was rotten. Second one I returned to that store and this time they finally threw the rest of them out!
Small family farms have been forced out of business over the years due to agri-business. So our food comes from some place a few thousand miles away and it's not fresh. I had to buy very green bananas the other day and by the time they ripen, they'll be rotten. I guess there isn't much you can do about bananas because they don't grow in this climate, but we used to get fairly ripe bananas, not green ones. The tomatoes aren't called "styrofoam tomatoes" for nothing. In winter they're nearly white and hard as a rock and without flavor.
We can hardly get lamb over here anymore. I don't know, is that some beef lobbying sort of thing? Now it comes from Australia and is very expensive. Chicken is cheap but it's full of antibiotics.
I can find decent bread but it's at least $5/loaf. Otherwise, it's this soft, squishy stuff like Wonder Bread.
Seems that if you don't have a place to grow your own food, you mostly have to settle for nearly spoiled vegetables from afar that have lost their nutritional value in transport and meat with hormones or antibiotics. Sometimes you can find a Whole Foods store but they're awfully expensive for what SHOULD be normal food.
When I go grocery shopping in England, the store is like a Whole Foods to me except for the low prices. I don't know how they do it but when you drive around, you see fields everywhere, even right outside the cities. Maybe they grow things in greenhouses in winter. Maybe they import a lot of it from Europe. Whatever they're doing, it's a lot better than what my area of the USA does.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland
Originally Posted by MLSFan
I think this might be where the article went wrong, they compared "grocery" stores in the US to "grocery" stores elsewhere in world... I can buy tires/guns/clothes in a US grocery store, I can buy almost strictly food in other place's grocery stores... without hitting up multiple places and knowing the language to get around, shopping is more time consuming/involved over there
Why on earth would I (or most other Americans) want to buy tires, guns, and clothes in a grocery store? People go to a grocery store for...groceries. Clothing can be bought in clothing stores or online. Tires? Guns? I don't even want to see a gun, let alone be in the same store with them when I'm buying groceries.
Now that I've read on here about places like Kroger, Publix, etc. I just wish we had them in my part of the country. If they really do have organic, without additives, I'd be there doing my shopping. As it is, we can barely find fresh produce here in winter--yesterday I had to return a rutabaga that was rotten. Second one I returned to that store and this time they finally threw the rest of them out!
Small family farms have been forced out of business over the years due to agri-business. So our food comes from some place a few thousand miles away and it's not fresh. I had to buy very green bananas the other day and by the time they ripen, they'll be rotten. I guess there isn't much you can do about bananas because they don't grow in this climate, but we used to get fairly ripe bananas, not green ones. The tomatoes aren't called "styrofoam tomatoes" for nothing. In winter they're nearly white and hard as a rock and without flavor.
We can hardly get lamb over here anymore. I don't know, is that some beef lobbying sort of thing? Now it comes from Australia and is very expensive. Chicken is cheap but it's full of antibiotics.
I can find decent bread but it's at least $5/loaf. Otherwise, it's this soft, squishy stuff like Wonder Bread.
Seems that if you don't have a place to grow your own food, you mostly have to settle for nearly spoiled vegetables from afar that have lost their nutritional value in transport and meat with hormones or antibiotics. Sometimes you can find a Whole Foods store but they're awfully expensive for what SHOULD be normal food.
When I go grocery shopping in England, the store is like a Whole Foods to me except for the low prices. I don't know how they do it but when you drive around, you see fields everywhere, even right outside the cities. Maybe they grow things in greenhouses in winter. Maybe they import a lot of it from Europe. Whatever they're doing, it's a lot better than what my area of the USA does.
I can find acceptable tomatoes at Aldi & Lidl in the winter. Other stores definitely have the Styrofoam varieties.
In the USA huge subsidies for corn effect the prices of our food. It makes a bag of potato chips far cheaper than fruits and veggies.
Corn is a form of poison to me (can't you make fuel from it?). We definitely need to subsidize healthy foods like broccoli and kale for example instead of corn.
Corn is a form of poison to me (can't you make fuel from it?).
You can make fuel from any vegetable oil. If you are a billionaire and want your vehicle to run on avocado oil, you can do it. Corn only gets picked on because it is abundant and cheap.
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