Monday, June 15, 2009

Fresh produce is cheaper! No, it's not!

KSAT-12 reports on the growing popularity of farmers' markets in the San Antonio area, and in the process the station produces some cognitive dissonance.
Farmers' Markets are growing in popularity despite the drought and recession as people look for inexpensive fruits and vegetables.

...

The produce, which usually travels fewer miles and has fewer chemicals, has varying pricing, but is usually a little more expensive than supermarket pricing. [emphases added]
Perhaps they mean "inexpensive" in that the produce is cheaper than actually buying land and farming equipment and then growing it yourself.

Perhaps.

2 comments:

AlanDP said...

My guess is, that's a typo. It should say "INexpensive" again. I've never seen a roadside stand that had prices higher than a real store.

Albatross said...

Perhaps, but whoever the writer was went to the trouble of writing out "... but is usually a little more expensive ...". Even if it is a typo and he meant to write inexpensive, it seems odd to add the modifier "a little more." I think that a better expression would be "but is usually a bit cheaper than ..."

By writing it out the way it is, I think the writer meant to say the produce costs more than at the supermarket, which is at odds with the claim in the opening paragraph.

I really don't know either way. I haven't done much shopping at a farmers' market, so I can't really do a comparison with grocery store prices. But I might do so just to see if the produce really is less expensive.

Or more.