affluent Americans pay a membership fee and drive out of their way to shop at Costco, whose entire model is based on having less brand choices, but minimum quality standards. and they love this lack of choice, because decision fatigue is real.
it turns out having too many choices in consumer goods sucks, actually.
i get a lesser version of this from Aldi. for a while i was calling it grocery store socialism. just grab “the thing” and the thing is relatively inexpensive and decent. not institutional grade store brand but ok
in and out
then go home and cook whatever you want there are literally hundreds of variations of recipes for all one’s choice paralysis needs
yeah. i work for a different co same business. no union. they work us to the bone too mostly by keeping stores at permanent skeleton crew.
so i do look upon the little advantages the eurostores have with some envy. chairs. little powered pallet jacks with a cargo bed. the efficient stocking.
the grocery industry is kind of having a moment now not sure where it’s going but it’s being hollowed out bad.
the experienced people are leaving in droves, the young ones aren’t replacing them. and everyone else is aging out
I 100% do not like the lack of choice at CostCo, but I do like the prices (usually) and consistent decent quality.
It’s all made at the same factory any way, so who cares about the branding?
i apologize that you do not know how to CostCo correctly. you may return to the Kroger-Publix at anytime for a life spent in the aisle deciding between 86 permutations of jelly, foreclosed dreams and sandwiches of wistful regret. or, accept the invitation to meta-cognitive executive function.
Statistically speaking, these regular grocery stores – such as Kroger, for instance – have between 30,000 and 50,000 individual products, or stock keeping units (SKUs). A Walmart has about 100,000 SKUs. A typical Costco, on the other hand, has only about 3,800. And the increasingly popular Aldi cuts down on choice even more by carrying only about 1,400 SKUs.
join the Kirkland Signature Cult and come home to the freedom of commitment.
I shop at Aldi primarily and their prices are significantly lower than CostCo. I’d go to CostCo more if they were actually cheaper.
And just to be clear, many of the Kirkland food options are terrible. I have had enough poor tasting food items that I don’t buy much actual food there anymore. I find that my biggest reason to go to CostCo are the home goods since they are good quality and they have an excellent return policy.
I love having the choice between different types of slop that all came from the same factory
God I love living in The Freest Country On Earth where I can pick between which flavor of Procter & gamble I want
A choice between 6 peanut butters with different branding that all come from the same factory.
You’d quickly find yourself arguing a weird and difficult position if your defense of capitalism is the quality of the pre-packaged foods. I’m sure a manifold of packagers can take tomatoes and make a version of pasta sauce you don’t think is yucky. You would also be equipped with the time, energy, and purchasing power to make your own pasta sauce if you’re so particular. You would also be part of a superstructure that doesn’t have basic life skills locked behind some sort of gender role.
I have never felt relief while checking the nutrition info, price/oz, and ingredient list of the 6 pasta sauces for 5 minutes to see which brand is cheap but not a slurry of corn syrup. If I felt confident that the pasta sauce was basically good, it came in mild, regular, spicy, and two avant garde versions I’m sure I’d be spoiled for choice. Even better if the pasta sauce union had a forum where they would take into account what sauce heads think about the state of pasta sauce. This, of course, would be instead of the board of Kellogs and Hersheys (who are probably the same people) that control all food in the US unilaterally deciding that working class families need a subscription to saw dust laden pasta sauce on the Kellogs app in order to summon a muzzled grocery store worker to unlock the locked cabinets for a tip.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but peanut butter is generally not very common in Europe. It’s usually in the “American food” section at European supermarkets.
One of Europe’s many failures.
It’s so simple. You roast peanuts, grind them, add salt to taste, bam, a rich, thick, tasty spread you can put on everything, or just eat with a spoon if you’re terminally sad.
Europe: “how about some overly sweet hazelnut paste with chocolate added??!?”
Nah also got to add a terminal amount of high fructose corn syrup
I’m sooo bitter that most stores near me don’t carry actual real peanut butter, and the ones that do charge $9 a jar
Word. It’s so silly. I used to live near a fancy hippy store that had a bin of roast peanuts and you’d pour as much as you wanted in to a grinder and it’d poop out fresh peanut butter. Never did it because it was kinda $$$ but i thought it was funny.
I used to know a guy who knew a food scientist and sometimes he’d show up at work and be like “my buddy had to make 20lbs of peanut butter for an experiment and he gave me the leftovers who wants some?” It was usually sooooo good.
They used to have these in regular grocery stores like A&P and Kroger. My mom used to use these exclusively since I was ADHD and wasn’t allowed anything with sugar or artificial color. It would have been fine except SHE KEPT THE PEANUT BUTTER IN THE FRIDGE 😭
Source: am old and remember when cigarettes were sold on a regular aisle.
or just eat with a spoon if you’re terminally sad.
Now what have I done that you come after me personally?
Edit:
I’d say you’re wrong because I’ve been able to find it in most supermarkets in the countries in Europe I’ve visited. And it’s actual peanutbutter instead of peanutbutter + a bunch of sugar or weird supplements.
Just checked my kitchen, the store brand peanut butter from German Aldis has around 9% of additives (sugar, palm oil and salt) and it’s the only one they stock. This whole comment chain made me look up where to find 100% peanut butter and that ratio of additives unfortunately seems to be fairly common. There are brands that are 100% peanut, but for some reason these are almost exclusively sold in 1kg jars, i guess people who look for that are really into peanut butter. I mean, i am as well, and this stuff keeps good forever, so i may just go big next time i have to restock.
