• Lucky_777@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    It’s great. Beat out other grocery stores so prices drop to compete. Have grocery stores donate soon to be expired food to these gov stores for tax breaks. That handles safe disposal. If it’s not sold. Turn it into feed for farm animals. Sell it cheap to farms. Their stuff goes down.

      • adarza@lemmy.ca
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        6 days ago

        that’s exactly the goal of the program.

        there’s something like one grocery store per 1500 residents in new york (far more, per capita, than my entire county).

        many residents have multiple options nearby, but some (around 750,000) do not live within 5 blocks of even just one. those are the neighborhoods this program would target.

        these city-run stores are not intended to serve ‘everybody’, just those who aren’t served by anything.

    • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      If I recall correctly, it’s only one store per borough, only in areas without access to healthy foods, and where public private partnerships had failed in the past.

    • MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      It’s not the grocery stores, it’s the food corporations. And animal feed can’t just be left over groceries. There’s a science to feeding livestock at scale. Not that some.ofnitncouldnt be used, just saying it’s not all that simple. Otherwise I 100% agree with the sentiment.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Beat out other grocery stores so prices drop to compete.

      Grocery stores operate on extremely thin margins. There isn’t much to cut either for the private store or the government store.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        That’s not true, and they make money in lots of ways:

        • They sell the end cap and shelf space. That’s why you see the cheap, simple stuff on the bottom shelves. To even show up in a store, a company has to pay to play. Think of it like the Google Play Store or Apple Store.
        • They get bulk discounts and contracts to sell stuff.

        Costco operates on thin margins because they make their money on the membership fees.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          6 days ago

          That’s not true, and they make money in lots of ways:

          You understand that the net profit of 1.5% includes all sales and all expenses, right? It’s neat-o they’re selling space in the store, but that’s already factored in.

        • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          The other commenter brought up Kroger. A grocery store that operates on a 1.5% profit margin.

          That’s not true

          I don’t know what to tell you. 1.5% profit margin is razor thin. There isn’t anything to cut for the private stores or the government stores.

            • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              Kroger is a public company, the presented numbers are their financials. Everything you mention is part of how they squeeze out a measly 1.5% profit margin. There isn’t much to cut for the private store or the government store.

        • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Kroger’s revenue is $150B, with a net income of $2.3B. That is a profit margin of…1.5%. One-point-five percent profit.

          As I said, grocery stores operate on tiny margins. There isn’t much to cut either for the private store or the government store.

          gross margin in 2024 was 22.3%

          Gross margin is not profit, it only accounts for direct costs of the goods being sold. Hence why their profit is only 1.5%.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        6 days ago

        Given the insane (and insanely sticky) price gouging we’ve seen these past few years, I strongly doubt this. But hey, we’ll see in a few months.