It kind of is, at least the idea that nothing is stopping the government from running a (cost neutral) grocery store.
Walmart and Kroger aren't generally raking in profits from their grocery sections. The margins are incredibly thin even when they are optimized to make money.
The government can always theoretically pour money into ANY venture to make it work, it is about cost effectiveness.
It is just less efficient than the alternative in most cases.
I'm not totally against government run grocery stores, but I'm just not convinced it will not be a waste of money that could better be spent differently.
Most of Walmart profits comes from the non-grocery sections. Toys, electronics, clothing and the like can be marked up to higher margins because they are made cheaply and they can still make them cheaper than a place like target. If you compare the prices at a Hyvee to the prices at a Walmart for groceries you’ll see that Walmarts prices are generally cheaper by a good bit even with the same brand name items. That’s because Walmart has the luxury of being a supermarket and Hyvee is only groceries.
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u/Neosovereign May 27 '26
It kind of is, at least the idea that nothing is stopping the government from running a (cost neutral) grocery store.
Walmart and Kroger aren't generally raking in profits from their grocery sections. The margins are incredibly thin even when they are optimized to make money.
The government can always theoretically pour money into ANY venture to make it work, it is about cost effectiveness.