Trader Joe's spoilage
It seems like food I buy from Trader Joe's has an abnormally high likelihood of being spoiled when I first open it, or of going bad shortly thereafter. Has anyone else gotten this impression?
Could this be part of the way they offer such low prices?
(privilege check: with the exception of milk, which I think is a loss leader, TJ's is not a "low-price" place to shop in absolute terms. But their prices are low in the sense that they sell organic and fancy foods at a much lower premium than major grocery stores. I reckon that it's about the same premium that hippie co-ops charge, though the total price is lower because of TJ's economy of scale and probably some other, shadier, factors as well.)
(paradigm check: I'd like to hasten the day when instead of saying that we pay a premium for organic food, we can say that some people get a discount for buying chemically-treated food. But I think a discussion of current pricing strategies necessitates working with the more common perspective.)
Could this be part of the way they offer such low prices?
(privilege check: with the exception of milk, which I think is a loss leader, TJ's is not a "low-price" place to shop in absolute terms. But their prices are low in the sense that they sell organic and fancy foods at a much lower premium than major grocery stores. I reckon that it's about the same premium that hippie co-ops charge, though the total price is lower because of TJ's economy of scale and probably some other, shadier, factors as well.)
(paradigm check: I'd like to hasten the day when instead of saying that we pay a premium for organic food, we can say that some people get a discount for buying chemically-treated food. But I think a discussion of current pricing strategies necessitates working with the more common perspective.)