"The whole grocery store is basically owned by 10 companies"

[Budi]

"The whole grocery store is basically owned by ~10 companies"





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Link to tweet

[fierywoman]

1. What does Costco or Trader Joe's look like in these type of charts?

[Cha]

3. Costco has their brand that is organic and a lot

of products that are organic.

I shop there for some things and privately owned Natural food stores.

💙💛

[wackadoo wabbit]

13. Not all Kirkland Signature (Costco's house brand) items are organic

Some are, though.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Interestingly Enough...

...many food products already met the lax standard of organic without changing a thing.
Companies developed new packaging, with the word organic on it, put the exact same product in the package, and raised the prices 15%.
In mass marketing, organic is mostly an illusion.
Crops grown with with inorganic fertilizers (ammonium nitrate, potassium phosphate, & ammonium phosphate) are completely innocuous and no less healthy than supposedly organically grown equivalents. Those simple salts are nothing that harms people or the environment. (Weed & pest killers are a whole different topic.)
And, the rules around labeling as organic are malleable enough that most "organic" food products actually use them anyway.
I'm very skeptical of most things labeled as such.

[fierywoman]

41. Thank you for this info!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. Pretty much the same.

Store brands aren't included on these charts.

[relayerbob]

2. I rarely buy "name brand" products

so, I'm seeing very little on there I would actually purchase. Lots of other choices

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Where are the vegetables? J/K these crappy companies don't sell anything I put in or on my body.

I shop local and small. I'm really looking forward to all the great veggies that will be coming out of the garden in the not too distant future. I recently discovered a woman who makes the most incredible soaps, too.

The good stuff is out there if you look. It might take more effort and cost more but there are many things that we buy that we think we need that on close examination we find we can do without. This alone can save bunches of money that can be redirected to other healthier options. ❤

🌻🇺🇦❤🇺🇦🌻 Slava Ukraini! 🌻🇺🇦❤🇺🇦🌻

[orwell]

5. I don't buy any of that crap...

...so I guess I'm "safe".

[xmas74]

6. No soap, shampoo, deodorants,

Cleaning supplies or otc meds?

[orwell]

9. Bars of soap,

Orange cleaner from the dollar store.

No shampoo.

I do feed a feral cat some kibble. Whatever is the cheapest at Grocery Outlet.

Make all my food from scratch, including bread, using King Arthur flour.

So no, I basically buy no brand name products at all.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. Orange Cleaner Has Synthetic Surfactants In It

In fact, it's the only ingredient in there capable of micellization. I've been to 4 different sites that make a product in that niche. They're all the same, and that active ingredient is the same as, or directly analogous to, the active ingredients in all those brand name cleaning products.
The raw materials for all those products are from a renewable resource, plus elemental sulfur & oxygen from air.
Same with most bar soaps. Over 40% of commercially available bar soap in the US are 100% synthetic detergent, and another 50+% are a blend of syndet & true soap.
So, depending upon which bar soap you buy, there's a very good chance you're still "buying that crap".

[orwell]

28. The discussion was about...

...buying "brand name" products from the small amount of companies that dominate the store shelves, not the ingredients list to achieve some level of synthetic chemical free purity.

But thanks for your concern...

[xmas74]

32. Some of those brand names

Also make generic/bargain products in the same factory. Dollar Tree products are often made in overseas factories with substandard working conditions on the level of slave labor.

At least some of the offenders above are union plants stateside.

[orwell]

34. Once again...

...what does this have to do with the OP.

Was the OP about unionized plants, or overseas factories?

It was about the small amount of brands that dominate the grocery stores.

The fact that I have attempted to eliminate the purchase of almost all of those products for the greater portion of my life is what is relevant here.

Buying grain and spices in bulk from natural food stores does not insure that the bulk oats I buy didn't come from "Quaker Oats" or the coriander I buy was not harvested by "Spice Islands". But making the effort to eliminate 95% of the brand name products produced by these companies from my life is not only generally healthier and cheaper, but is my small way of resisting the concentration of power in the global consumer products industries.

It really isn't that hard to do. It is cheaper, generally healthier, and in line with my economic and moral philosophy.

We often complain about the state of the world without making the necessary personal choices that could help to change it. It is that vote, the one we make every day with our consumptive choices, that is just as important as the one we make at the polls.

By supporting these effective monopolies and the attendant political power they wield, we often work against our own interests.

[xmas74]

36. And I support my union brothers and sisters

Who make many of the products listed above.

[orwell]

38. As long as we are cherry picking...

"I'm not saying to go out and fill you cupboards with unneeded and sometimes unhealthy junk. I am just reminding people that these products are a direct result of the types of manufacturing jobs we as a nation desperately want back."


So I chose to live my life based on sentence one from your observation.

There is nothing stopping union plants from making products that benefit humans, the environment, and the workers. In fact, King Arthur Flour, mentioned in my original post, is a very old flour mill that is owned by the workers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur_Baking

There is nothing stopping workers from owning the plants they work in. Such economic arrangements generally benefit all concerned.

So you can have your "cake" and eat it too...

[xmas74]

44. Or you can choose to not support unions nt

[orwell]

45. I worked in a meat processing plant...

...and belonged to a union to work there.

I was also a union carpenter.

So...

Once again, what does this have to do with the OP?

[PortTack]

7. Me either, or very little of it. Highly processed foods, overrated cleaning and paper supplies, and

Personal hygiene items. No thx

[DFW]

8. I'm sure we must buy some of that stuff

But most of our food comes from the same place it has been coming from in our area for the last 800 years or so. The open air farmers market held in the town square three times a week is the source of most of our food. One local baker even hauls in a huge oven, and bakes bread and rolls right there. Twenty minutes from their oven to our breakfast table.

[Celerity]

11. Baeckerei Hinkel? (subject line will not allow the correct spelling)

I recall Bäckerei Hinkel in Düsseldorf having extraordinary bread. The people who told us about it at our hotel (Breidenbacher Hof, a lovely old hotel right in the middle of the central area) said it had some of the best baked goods in all of Germany, and they were Berliners, so not native North Rhine-Westphalians being biased. We never went to the farmers open air market, thus my question.

I also, of course, am assuming you are speaking about Düsseldorf, which is where I recall you saying you and your wife live (for a EU home base, I know your job keeps you in constant geographical flux).

https://www.baeckerei-hinkel.de/

[DFW]

14. No, nothing that fancy

Just a small local business located outside of town that brings their oven to 2 different open air markets 6 days a week. Three times in our little town and three times in some town nearby. There are also several single-ownership cafés in town that have their own fresh baked goods on a daily basis.

The Düsseldorfer Markt is several times bigger than the one in our little town, which Düsseldorf has been trying to incorporate for decades, but so far without success. They want both the open spaces and the tax base, neither of which the locals want to surrender--a decision we very much support. We border on the part of Düsseldorf that has the airport, so we have the advantage of proximity to an intercontinental airport without the big city government being able to force us to endure any accommodations they want to impose.

As it is, our town's little open air market is, for some reason, a huge magnet for people from other towns in the region, even the north of Düsseldorf. Finding parking on a Saturday morning is a useless pursuit, and the license plates on the cars that were lucky to find a space are evidence that our market is the best one in a wide radius. The other shops besides the market itself, as well as the many cafés with long lines at the pastry counters are indicative of the popularity of our tiny city. We were fortunate to find an affordable house here (though in need of MANY expensive repairs over the years) over 30 years ago. Today, it's almost impossible to find something, even if you ARE a gazillionaire. Not even the taxes scare people into moving away any more, and that leaves only death.

[Celerity]

15. Thanks for the detailed reply, DFW! Stockholm real estate is also a mad market, has been for long

before we moved here.

[DFW]

20. Yes, I've heard about Stockholm for decades

We only have one friend left that lives anywhere near there. The rest have all moved out to Eskilstuna, Örebro, Uppsala and such places. One even left altogether, got himself a throat operation so he could speak Danish (or so he says), and moved to Sjælland.

[Celerity]

22. 'got himself a throat operation so he could speak Danish'

[onetexan]

18. Whoa just the whiff of fresh baked bread gets me perked up

Which farmers mkt are you going to? I'd like to get some of that fresh oven baked bread.

[DFW]

19. It's at the Marktplatz in Ratingen Mitte

About a 20 minute car ride from either central Düsseldorf or 16 minutes from the Düsseldorf airport. Add five to ten minutes if it's after 7 AM or before 8 PM. If you're in the Netherlands, then about 3 hours due east from Amsterdam or if you're in Belgium, to the northeast from Brussels. Less, of course, if you're closer to the German border.

*Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 8:00-13:00 (CET, of course) if you're serious about stopping by. Open an hour later on Saturdays.

[onetexan]

29. Oh u're in Germany LOL

i thought you meant a farmers market in the DFW area good one. A close friend of mine's daughter is attending college in the Netherlands so i'll def'ly let her know. The young lady likes to venture out when she has opportunity in between her studies

[DFW]

39. Generally not considered to be within driving distance of 183

If that’s what you meant

[onetexan]

42. U got it. I gotta put up w I35, I75, I635 tommorrow

So consider yrself lucky u're no longer having to do so

[DFW]

43. I'm still stuck with the A3, the A2 and the A52

I take trains whenever I can!

[Mr. Ected]

26. Not exactly on-point, but I remember back in '77 visiting my family in the Sauerland

And having freshly-baked and very warm broetchen delivered to our doorstep. As a young man I was impressed and my taste buds even more so. At that time I probably devoured Nutella like it was the elixir of life. Those memories will remain with me forever.

[DFW]

40. The good old days

They don’t deliver Brötchen to the door any more, but we live a 14 minute walk from the town center, so we can usually be home for breakfast while the bread/rolls are still warm.

[left-of-center2012]

12. They don't own the grocery store

The stores sell the products listed in that circle.
There's a difference.

Stores decide what products they're going to sell.
They sell what is popular and what the customers want.

That doesn't make the product manufacturers the owners of the grocery store.

That's like saying if a clothing store sells Levi's,
that Levi owns that store.

[Celerity]

16. I think they meant metaphorically

[ZZenith]

17. And not a single brand do we buy.

Yes, we pay more for our food but that’s the one place we refuse to skimp.

S.A.D. = Standard American Diet. It’s a big part of the reason children struggle with learning - their brains are literally being starved of adequate nutrition, while the CEOs of these mega-corporations rake in millions every year. A pox on all their houses.

[cinematicdiversions]

30. Yeah but we are richer and have more access to more information than any other time in history.

Seriously at some point the parents need to step up.

I know plenty of parents who feed their children good food and a balanced diet.

And I know of a few who are lazy or stupid.

I find that seems to be the difference rather than any marketing. I bet if you did a study of parents who read and own books vs parents who do not the kids of the readers are going to be overall less obese and much healthier.

[honest.abe]

21. Meats, fruits, veggies, rice and fresh breads are not there.

Which what we buy mostly.

[smirkymonkey]

24. I see very few brands there that I buy, and most of them are paper, household cleaning

products, healthcare products, and maybe a few food items - Claussen's Pickles (my favorite), Altoids, and occassionally Cadbury, Toblerone, S. Pelligrino and Hagen Dazs. I don't eat a lot of processed foods or snack foods.

I do wish there was some way to see the graph in more detail though.

[Hotler]

31. Buy some stock in each one of those. nt

[xmas74]

33. I hope that while some posters here sit up on their moral high horse

They remember that some of these products are made in union factories. The members fight to make decent wages and good benefits. Their decent wages buy homes,cars, pay taxes and put more money back into their communities.

I'm not saying to go out and fill you cupboards with unneeded and sometimes unhealthy junk. I am just reminding people that these products are a direct result of the types of manufacturing jobs we as a nation desperately want back.

(Maybe this should be tweaked and turned into an OP. I don't have time atm. As a former union officer I tend to see the other side that I think many here at DU forget.)

[highplainsdem]

35. Almost everything I buy at the grocery store is fresh produce, meat and dairy. The main

exception is oatmeal. No wheat products, very rarely anything with sugar in it. The cottage cheese I buy is Daisy brand, which is family owned and has the shortest ingredient list of any brand I can find in regular grocery stores (tends to be pricier, was close to $5 a carton for a while recently at one local store, but worth it to avoid all the extra ingredients in the other brands).

I do buy Gorton's fish, and Gorton's is owned by Unilever.

[BlueIdaho]

37. I'm surprised it's that many.

Monopolies are killing America.