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Should Bay Leaves Cost More Than $400 per Pound?
Comparison shopping at a co-op and a warehouse store
by Paul Bernhardt and Jolana Bernhardt, HPC Co-op Members (reprinted from the February/March 2000 newsletter)Are prices higher at a co-op or a warehouse store? A proper answer to that question requires a sophisticated method of inquiry. We set out with a more limited goal: record prices of co-op bulk goods with comparable packaged goods at a warehouse store. This is not a price survey, but a collection of price anecdotes. It s enough, though, to point out some massive disparities in pricing.
An important aspect of packaging is engineering the relation between size and price. Would you pay $1.89 for 10 ounces of couscous if you'd never tried it? Would you pay three bucks for a pound? The two prices are mathematically the same, but psychologically worlds apart.
Would you pay five bucks for a bottle of bay leaves? No, because if you're reading this, you ve probably shopped a co-op at least once and know you can get bay leaves for a bit less than $13/lb., rather than the outrageous $440/lb. that an 0.18 oz. bottle works out to. Astonishing.
A Warehouse Food Store, Saint Paul-Midway, 11/18/1999, 10pm
Plenty of parking. Lots of room inside to steer full-sized cart. Shoppers will rarely bump into each other, but might get in each other s personal space examining or reaching for the same products. Such a big place leads one to wonder. What's this store s rent or cost of ownership by square foot? Which of these products are sold at such a profit that can justify the massive real-estate?A few very long checkout lines. We were going to pick up a few things until we veered near the crowd at the front, caught a whiff of the ugly mood there, and decided just to write down our prices and leave. Neither of us had ever seen lines this long at a warehouse store.
A store this large filled to the ceiling implies wide selection. We noticed that an item can be found in different brands at different prices but that some items are not stocked or cannot be found. There were plenty of items we simply didn't find at this warehouse store, including chocolate almonds, wasabi, shiitake mushrooms, herbs de provence. Hardly neccessities, to be sure, and we might easily have missed them in the giant store; but, based on our experience in this and other warehouse stores, if we wanted to ask someone where they were, we'd be hard-pressed to find someone with an answer.
Hampden Park Co-op, 11/13/1999, 10:30am
Plenty of parking. Not much room inside to steer a downsized cart. One shopper will likely bump into another and almost certainly need to slip past another in close quarters. We'd certainly spend more time (and likely buy more) in larger quarters, but real-estate expansion is a risky business. Two short, pleasantly-administered checkout lines. A store this small filled to the ceiling implies less-than-optimal selection, and there is frequently only one brand or a small number of brands of an item; but there is truly a great variety of items in stock.So far, if you have an expansive sense of personal space and you value it above all else about grocery shopping, then a warehouse store might seem to be the place for you. Product selection is all about personal taste, but then American taste and practice in food has been profoundly affected by foods that began their life in the U.S. marketplace at co-ops: brown rice, tabouli, couscous, organic foods, and the very idea of buying food in bulk.