jim wrote:When you look at all of the "stuff"(cars, boats, houses, etc...) we spend our money on in this country it's kind of strange that we tend to really scrimp with food.
So true.
I sometimes catch myself comparing prices at the grocery store, to save 5 or 10 cents, which is really ridiculous. Sure, if you're really on a tight budget, then it makes total sense to save everywhere you can. But I find it odd that we will be cheap about things like food while making sure that we buy the latest cellphones, video games, dvd's, cars, clothes, etc and all the associated expenses that go with these luxury items. Even spending the amount of money many of us do on watching baseball is disproportionate to the amount we fret over the price of a box of cereal or a slab of meat.
There is actually an Aldi's in the Sicilian village where my family is from, I shop there a lot and I hate that place. The reason I hate it is because in times in the not so distant past there were multiple little mom & pop shops all along the one road that runs through the village. But of course an Aldi, with its cheaper prices and corporate backing, is a much better business proposition, and gradually those mom & pop shops have gone out of business. There are still a couple, but even the ones that are still there don't have nearly the quantity and quality of selection that they once did. They have primarily only stayed in business as butcher shops. So basically the arrival of Aldi has left a village with a lot less quality of food to even have an option to buy. Furthermore, the store is at the far end of the village in a warehouse, so you have to drive there (used to just walk to the local grocers that were near to your house).
