The problem as I understand it is that products aren’t priced in a grocery store to all have the same margin.
So the prepared foods and toiletries get marked up to make up for low margins on fresh fruit. Wealthier customers are fine with this as they want to not have to make two trips and they will pay for the fruit.
Dollar stores ditch the fresh stuff and just take a lower margin on the toiletries and prepared food to make up for it, resulting in lower prices. A bit of extra savings matters more to poor people, so they shift those purchases to the dollar store. The grocery store’s business model fails.
Spoilage if you don't eat it fast, which is part of the convenience factor you mention. Harder to protect fresh fruit & veggies from pests, than anything in a sealed package, which I think is a factor that doesn't get enough attention. And the smell of them will attract more pests. Once you're out of precious fridge space, assuming your fridge is well-functioning and its seals are intact enough to keep pests out, you'll need extra, reusable containers that seal to protect anything else... which can lead to even faster spoilage, with lots of fruits and veggies.
Meanwhile, the store-brand pop tarts can deliver 2,000 calories/day for like $3, and come with sealed-per-serving packaging. Sure, they'll give you diabetes and malnutrition, but....
If we have a semi functional system and a change made to it worsens the populations health it is more reasonable to stop this change and reverse over hoping for revolutionary change.
If some company has a buisness model that has negative externalities they should be taxed more for it. When taxing is not responsible because this would hit the poor dispropoertionally the buisness model should be banned.
It would be much easier and less corruption prone to just enact wealth transfers, especially via giving people more education opportunities and enhancing labor laws to allow time to invest in one's self.
I think the argument is that these are the only options in certain areas, so it's marked up higher than grocery stores.
I think many people on HN have not been in a dollar store, not all sell for a "dollar" like Dollar Tree. Dollar General and such usually have a "larger" markup on basic goods.
So the prepared foods and toiletries get marked up to make up for low margins on fresh fruit. Wealthier customers are fine with this as they want to not have to make two trips and they will pay for the fruit.
Dollar stores ditch the fresh stuff and just take a lower margin on the toiletries and prepared food to make up for it, resulting in lower prices. A bit of extra savings matters more to poor people, so they shift those purchases to the dollar store. The grocery store’s business model fails.