I'm thinking that Food Stamps did a lot to keep smaller grocery store and chains in business during the Great Repression. They certainly kept me fed while I was waiting for my disability benefits.
At the time there was a local grocery store about roughly two or three blocks from me. Prices were quite reasonable. Walmart was much farther away.Okay, they kept you fed. What does that have to do with smaller grocery stores? Their items are ALL $1 more expensive than if you bought the same thing at Walmart. If you are trying to survive, you go with the cheapest option. That's not any small grocery store.
I'm thinking that Food Stamps did a lot to keep smaller grocery store and chains in business during the Great Repression. They certainly kept me fed while I was waiting for my disability benefits.
Okay, they kept you fed. What does that have to do with smaller grocery stores? Their items are ALL $1 more expensive than if you bought the same thing at Walmart. If you are trying to survive, you go with the cheapest option. That's not any small grocery store.
What I like about tht local grocery store is that Is allowed me to eat fresh produce every day.Supermarkets require a certain amount of cashflow to be profitable. Mom & Pop markets fill in the gaps. They charge higher prices because they can't keep the doors open otherwise.
The other side of it is that people have to get there to buy anything. Some people have to walk.
http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts
I recall my mother getting some commodites during the late 70's and early 80's, such as government cheese and peanut butter and some canned juices and meats(beef?). Well I know they still existed but only for Food Banks, schools, prisons, and the like.
I was unaware that people are still getting government cheese as I can recall was fairly decent at home and at school, and really enjoyed the peanut butter as well.
Well Trump is considering cutting Food Stamps in half and increasing the Box of Commodities to much more people.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/16/news/economy/government-food-box/index.html
While I'm not opposed to more people getting the "Box", I think it is a bad idea to cut Food Stamps, in fact we should be increasing them so no one in the US has Food Insecurity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_security
Thoughts?
I wonder if it would be practical to give subsidies or taxes breaks so grocery stores and farmer's market can be located in those areas?Supermarkets require a certain amount of cashflow to be profitable. Mom & Pop markets fill in the gaps. They charge higher prices because they can't keep the doors open otherwise.
The other side of it is that people have to get there to buy anything. Some people have to walk.
http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts
I wonder if it would be practical to give subsidies or taxes breaks so grocery stores and farmer's market can be located in those areas?
The city where I grew up did just that. They offered a rent subsidy to get grocery stores into the urban core that was what we would now call a "food desert". It worked.I wonder if it would be practical to give subsidies or taxes breaks so grocery stores and farmer's market can be located in those areas?
Can you still use Food Stamps to buy Seeds for a food garden? They did back when I was a minor.The city where I grew up did just that. They offered a rent subsidy to get grocery stores into the urban core that was what we would now call a "food desert". It worked.
It just seems really inefficient. Why not just use the existing food distribution system?
Ie supermarkets and a flexible system of credits (ie food stamps) so recipients can leverage the free market to maximize their benefit?
It's a dumb idea on multiple levels.
And you drive to that Walmart in the car you don't have!Okay, they kept you fed. What does that have to do with smaller grocery stores? Their items are ALL $1 more expensive than if you bought the same thing at Walmart. If you are trying to survive, you go with the cheapest option. That's not any small grocery store.
The reason for this is the huge subsidies we pay to farmers, by buying up their excess product. Our gubmint then has to unload this surplus somehow, somewhere, since it does COST to keep it all piling up in warehouses.Can’t have people using food stamps to buy smokes and beer. Much better to make a convoluted government program to deliver heavy, bulky, and perishable goods.
Well they could give boxes of food to people who need them, but without cutting food stamps. I would take the peanut butter at least.The reason for this is the huge subsidies we pay to farmers, by buying up their excess product. Our gubmint then has to unload this surplus somehow, somewhere, since it does COST to keep it all piling up in warehouses.