alt Hacker NewsIDK if it'd apply here, but there are technically laws on the books in the US against price and purchase discrimination for grocers. It was specifically one of the things Lina Khan was investigating on the way out of office and something I believe she's going to be using for the NYC grocery stores.
A food seller isn't allowed to cut out a grocer because they are too small. However, I believe they get around this today by having minimum order sizes that make it impossible for a small grocer to handle.
That's effectively how my small hometown grocer was driven out of business. The suppliers refused to work with them because they wanted them to order huge amounts of product that wouldn't work for my hometown with 300 people. So, the people running the store ended up just buying products from either costco or another grocery store a town over. The price hike they had to apply was simply too much for the local folk who ultimately also went to the nearby towns to save money instead of shopping locally.
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And I'm guessing, without a local grocery store at the very least, your hometown is also a dying entity?
It seems entirely reasonable to me to quote larger prices per item, even much larger prices, for smaller quantities. Or even outright refuse to sell in small quantities.
I mean, my grocer doesn't sell individual beans either. So why should wholesalers be forced?
can't several small hometown grocers get together to be able to make that volume/quantity? Surely that would be better than just buying from costco?
Greatly detailed here:
https://youtu.be/odhVF_xLIQA?t=338
In this case, Pepsi has reduced promotions and increased wholesale cost for "small groceries" which in this case was a regional grocer with ~1000 of stores across 10 states. If Pepsi is strong arming regional giants like that, imagine how the ant of a real local grocer feels. They are algorithmically getting destroyed