I live in a town that has the following:


And I live in a town that has the following:

Fred Meyer
Safeway

and let me tell you, the lack of competition causes prices you would not like to live with.

Milk: $4+ a gallon.
Fresh broccoli: $1.97 a pound.
Grapes: $3.99 a pound
Hamburger: ~$3.00 a pound

etc.

Prices are noticeably higher (even factoring in general inflation) than they were when there were more shopping opportunities in this town. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find that the managers of the two stores get together every week to decide what the prices on the "sale" items will be the week following.

Wal Mart is in this town now, but they don't sell groceries. There is a conflict going on now about whether to allow Wal Mart to open a second store (this one a "super store" that sells groceries) on the opposite side of town. I can't see how it makes any sense -- the total area population (say within a radius of 50 miles) is about 60,000 people. That's enough to support two Wal-Mart stores?

Yet, I am undecided -- I'm tired of being taken advantage of by the near-monopoly in grocery stores we have now.

On a semi-related topic... Wal Mart prices are not always the lowest around. I recently returned a defective automobile interior electric heater (it turns on whenever the car is plugged in in cold weather, along with block heater, transmission and engine oil pan heaters, battery trickle charger) and since they were out of stock on that item they refunded my money. I then found the identical heater at NAPA for $30 less than Wal-Mart, a 33% savings

tanstaafl.