You can only compare grocery shopping bills in different countries by factoring in the average income of the different countries (and geographic locations inside of said country -- Moscow isn't Siberia).
As for the availability of products. There isn't a single supermarket in the US that is fully stocked?
Inflation matters because of purchasing power. Prices go up and you can buy less. And if you don't know the purchasing power (average income) in Russia then what good is knowing the prices in a random supermarket in Moscow? Or comparing the receipts.
Hypothetically non-American food suppliers should be able to bring goods to market at much lower costs and undercut existing American food suppliers. In reality we see that's not the case. What's stopping it from happening?
Avg salary in USA is about ~30-40k USD and the avg salary in Russia is about ~10k USD.
For Russian groceries to be at least 4x cheaper is not covering Russia in glory or anything, but it should make you question why food is literally 4x more expensive in the USA. You should also be asking why almost every single prepackaged 'food' in the USA is full of soybean oil, canola oil, etc when these additives are not present in Europe.
The US being a much wealthier nation has more advanced automation and industrialization of the food supply which ought to drive the costs down to be lower than that of a more primitive food supply.
For me that realization came when I watched a video on how frozen pizzas were made. They're made at such a scale and with such a sophisticated level of automation that in a little 5 minute video you probably see 10,000 pizzas roll off the line. Yet if I were to make that same pizza it'd cost me less than to just buy a frozen one. Why is that? Shouldn't all the automation and market competition drive the cost of goods down to just above the cost of the raw materials?
If I were to make my own gasoline I couldn't do it cheaper, so why isn't that true for a pizza?
Am I missing something here? :')
You can only compare grocery shopping bills in different countries by factoring in the average income of the different countries (and geographic locations inside of said country -- Moscow isn't Siberia).
As for the availability of products. There isn't a single supermarket in the US that is fully stocked?
He was poorly making a point that sanctions on Russia aren't working.
Honest question: Why should groceries cost more in countries where the average person earns more?
Presumably the US should be more advanced and efficient at bringing food to market. Where's the cost savings?
Inflation matters because of purchasing power. Prices go up and you can buy less. And if you don't know the purchasing power (average income) in Russia then what good is knowing the prices in a random supermarket in Moscow? Or comparing the receipts.
Hypothetically non-American food suppliers should be able to bring goods to market at much lower costs and undercut existing American food suppliers. In reality we see that's not the case. What's stopping it from happening?
Avg salary in USA is about ~30-40k USD and the avg salary in Russia is about ~10k USD.
For Russian groceries to be at least 4x cheaper is not covering Russia in glory or anything, but it should make you question why food is literally 4x more expensive in the USA. You should also be asking why almost every single prepackaged 'food' in the USA is full of soybean oil, canola oil, etc when these additives are not present in Europe.
The US being a much wealthier nation has more advanced automation and industrialization of the food supply which ought to drive the costs down to be lower than that of a more primitive food supply.
For me that realization came when I watched a video on how frozen pizzas were made. They're made at such a scale and with such a sophisticated level of automation that in a little 5 minute video you probably see 10,000 pizzas roll off the line. Yet if I were to make that same pizza it'd cost me less than to just buy a frozen one. Why is that? Shouldn't all the automation and market competition drive the cost of goods down to just above the cost of the raw materials?
If I were to make my own gasoline I couldn't do it cheaper, so why isn't that true for a pizza?