>>Andronicos, however, is very close to my image of food distribution in a
>>socialist utopia--with one exception: those pesky cash registers up at the
>>front of the store...
>
>What I've heard - Patrick? Chuck? Jordan? Kirsten? - was that Berkeley's
>older poor, unable to afford the new food regime, ride the bus for an hour
>or more to Oakland to shop.
>
>Doug
There's a food warehouse--a Pack 'n' Save--in Emeryville that is on the bus lines and quite good, where staples (and produce) cost perhaps half of what they cost at Andronicos.
But it is certainly the case that even Lucky's--the low-price leader--in Berkeley is much more interested in keeping the quality gap vis-a-vis Andronicos small than in keeping its prices low. The only thing cheap in Berkeley are the Lattes (where the places around the university undercut Starbucks by 1/3).
My favorite, however, is Ultra Lucca...
Brad DeLong