"I'd like 4 boxes of groceries, please." "Certainly sir. That'll be 25.99. Have a nice day."
Most of most people's shopping lists are the mostly same most of the time. So, let supermarkets sell boxes of groceries by weight at a fixed price. Every box is different, containing a fairly balanced selection of essentials plus a few random items. You take pot-luck, but chances are that you'll need 70% of what's in the box, will have your tastes broadened by 20% of it, and will save 10% by accepting whatever the supermarket decides it can sell cheapest that week. And the time, hassle, arguments and stress saved will be a bonus.-- Basepair, Feb 26 2005 This is pretty much what you get when you receive food aid monthly from charitable groups such as food banks. Been there, packed that.
When I was a young 'un, before the advent of food stamps, we used to receive "commodities" food aid from the government. As I recall, there was a bit of randomness about it. Sometimes canned pork, sometimes canned beef, sometimes chicken, always in a nifty silver "USDA" labeled can. Powdered milk, cheese and raisins are also stuck in my memory. Could explain why it doesn't work as well as I'd like...-- half, Feb 26 2005 A bun for your last two lines, [half]. Yes, canned peanut butter, blocks of cheese the size of loaves of bread, farm subsidy program that benefitted families.-- normzone, Feb 26 2005 Bring in the Food Police.
This IT generation is not the sharing/caring kind.-- mensmaximus, Feb 26 2005 Many organic vegetable suppliers operate a 'box scheme'; you sign up for box (your choice of size) and a delivery schedule (weekly, fortnightly, whatever) and they deliver whatever happens to be available.-- angel, Feb 26 2005 I like. But can we include toilet paper. I always forget the damn toilet paper!-- etherman, Feb 26 2005 OK, toilet paper's in, but only on a statistical basis. There has to be a bit of uncertainty and excitement in life.
Regarding the comparison with aid parcels, things would be different if the supermarket chains were competing. It would be in their interests to develop a reputation for the best pot-luck boxes.
Regarding 'bring in the food police' [mensaximus] - an excellent suggestion! You could sneak the odd piece of fruit in amongst the processed stuff that most consumers *really* want, on the assumption that they might eat it if they got desperate :-)-- Basepair, Feb 26 2005 Food police would ensure a fundamental flow of nutritional food.
As grocery store owners, nutritionists, health food store owners, regular farmers, organic farmers, food processors, distributors (read all lobyists), informed citizens and uninformed citizens have their own differing opinions on food flow; chaos ensues. Food will revolt and take to the streets, demanding to be eaten equally by all. Equality for food eaters everywhere. Rant.-- mensmaximus, Feb 27 2005 Interesting. What if you wanted to buy food for a certain meal you wanted to prepare? I think this would be cool if the grocery stores had basic foodboxes like this, only anything not everyone needs or wants is sold seperately.-- Chickenbreadthe1st, Jul 17 2005 //What if you wanted to buy food for a certain meal you wanted to prepare?// Nah, that's arse-about-face. The correct philosophy is "OK, we've got diced lamb, kidney beans, spinach and olive oil. What can we make from that?"-- Basepair, Jul 17 2005 Here in Japan, there are gift bags with random selections of clothes, sorted by approximate size and by the price of the whole bag. For instancee, you can buy a 5000 yen bag of clothes for a size 10 person. Its very popular during I forget which holiday. I think the idea would work splendidly with food-- Voice, Dec 05 2006 random, halfbakery