"Torsten Brinch" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 21:02:37 GMT, Marcio Watanabe
wrote:

Torsten Brinch wrote:

No, look above. We are talking about how the price of
food in USA compares to the price of food elsewhere
on the planet.

No, you are talking about that. The original person who brought this
up is talking about something else. Based on your domain, I assume
you are not a native English speaker, so you might not know that
cheap/cheaper/cheapest can be used in absolute or comparative terms.

Based on your domain :-). Thanks.

You two are just not talking about the same thing.

The original person who brought this up wrote (with reference to USA):
"I will agree with you about the cheese in the supermarket. But you
can get good cheese you have to order it or go to a specitly store if
you are in a city. We do pay a price for having the cheapest food on
the planet. Aged cheese and beef are expensive and not avilble in
every grocery store."

I would be interested in knowing how you understand 'cheapest' in this
context, noting that you do not read it as a reference to the relation
between the price of food in USA and the price of food in other
countries on the planet.

To get cheap food an other items we have more or less made uniform
commodities of them. Unless you are in a city where there are shops that
cater to people that know better and are willing to pay for it the
supermarkets have a sameness in food that is sold with advertising and
buying preferential shelf space in the store.

The cost is the choice in cheeses is limited to some that are aged a very
short time and meat that is too lean for my tastes. Everything has been
vertically integrated. There are 3 major produce wholesalers in the state
and they can pretty well dictate what the grocery stores get. Over the last
15 years we have gone from 1 chain grocery store and 5 locally owned ones to
1 locally owned one and 3 chain stores. Two of them big chains. That have
what they stock and tough if you want something else.

The gains are the cost of food is about 7% of disposable income and I can
get it 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I have to go to extra trouble to get
good meat and cheese but that is preferable to spending 15% of my DI on
food. I have to drive 60 miles to the city ever month or two for something
anyway. To see a doctor or shop for shoes. The shoe stores have done the
same thing by stocking the things that sell and nether my nor my wife's foot
is fall in that size range.

It is better than when I farmed and had to drive 30 miles to go to the
picture show or find a decent restaurant and 60 miles to a heavy hardware
store.

In the US most customers buy from the lowest price source and will drive a
30 miles to get there. It makes an environment that builds business like
Wal-Mart that have good prices but no grantee that they will stock the same
thing tomorrow that they have today.

If you really want to eat cheap making your diet of beans, rice, lard cheap
canned meat or really low priced cuts of meat on sale can get the price of
food under 50 cents a day per person and have a diet that is better than
most of the population eats.

Gordon