Half New Yorkers Struggling to Pay for Groceries, Study Finds

I'm back to eating ramen noodles.

I am trying to cook less expensive meals.

#gossipgirl, I just eat less now. no more starbucks, no more desserts, no more comfort food. I think it is time for me to live only on miso soup. damn, I hate Bloomberg and Quinn. I worked over 65 hours a week with no overtime pay and most of the wages go to taxes, can't stand it anymore. too much corruption in NYC. i think we should all riot as in Athens.

if you guys really want change vote for any party besides the two party system.

you'll be taxed to death before they change.

I find some morbid comfort in the the fact that there are others struggling like I do. Everything seems to be imploding all at once, taxes, the mta, the job market. I would rather shove my shoe up some of these idiot's asses...

I agree with neckbeard. Unbridled capitalism got us into this mess. And those fucking assholes are laughing all the way to their offshore banks. Tax the rich. Throw them in prison for treason and seize all their property.

50% are having trouble paying for food, eh? I guess the other half are the ones going to those $175/plate tasting dinners.

Rocknrope, yes. All sarcasm aside, that is pretty much EXACTLY what's going on. The rich are getting richer, the poor getting more poor, the gap between widening.

i'd like to note...

to me there is a fine line between rich and greedy. there are those who are rich because of good-intentioned, fair, and honest business and career decisions, and there are those that are rich due to fucking people over for the bottom line.

wondering how people make it in this town.

You need to come here with no debt at all and have a good job lined up to be on the same footing with the trust fund kiddies, I think. My GF and I have been considering getting out of here and working remotely until all the college stuff is paid off. We figure by putting rent money on student loans and other college debt we could have it all paid off within 4 or 5 years and then move back in debt free. I think it's nearly impossible to pay catch-up on old debt while paying for all the other expenses of living here.

Can someone explain to me why items as simple as a can of soup or a box of cereal are over 100% more expensive here than anywhere else?

If I had to guess -- a combination of transportation costs, unionized cashiers/stockboys/etc making 3 or 4 times what the same person at Wal-Mart would be making, city taxes, and rent for the space.

Grocery stores have notoriously small margins. Thats why the bigger chains sell in-house, privately branded goods. Most grocers are not getting rich but are providing a service to their local communities.

Anybody get surveyed for the study? I wonder what questions where asked and how it was worded. I want to kno what their definition of "need" is.

unionized cashiers? hardly.
more like unionized butchers. Teamsters, etc.
it's not worth it to pay the initiation fee to be in the grocers union. sure you get time and a half on sunday but that's if you get that shift.
I believe most markets are not union shops.
I was in the grocers union, their office was at 57th and seventh when I went there last over 25 yrs ago.

Yeah, I doubt that the cashiers/baggers are unionized. I'm generalizing here, but most of them are either young students working part time or immigrants.

ugh, i wish there was an edit button.

#5 and #8 are spot on - it's taxation that will eventually crush this city and state. It's no coincidence that the states with the biggest budget problems are the ones with the highest taxation. Folks will be leaving NYC due to excessive taxation (especially the newly unemployed) - why pay more for no, or less, services? As will businesses who can set up shop elsewhere.

Our so-called leaders have to apperar to be doing "something" (otherwise, let's get rid of them). So the only thing they can do is raise taxes and claim all New Yorkers have to "share the pain". And we all know that politicians, well above and protected from the fray, will not share the pain.

#8 is correct - Coke and Pepsi (otherwise known as Democrats and Republicans) will never alter the landscape of excessive taxation. It's worked for both parties and their syncophants for too along - and the Media will never dare question it, because it works for the Media too. It's the rest of us who get screwed.

Cashiers and stockboys are not the root of the problem here, it's taxes, corruption, and greed.

I never said that cashiers and stockboys are the root of the problem. I said high cost of labor was a contributing factor to groceries in NYC being more expensive than everywhere else. If you think cashiers in the city are being paid the same money as a Wal-Mart cashier in Syracuse then I don't know what to tell you.

And, for the record, Google suggests that Gristede's Labor is represented by the Retail, Wholesale & Chain Store Food Employees Union, Local 338 located here. Nearly all labor in New York City, from retail employees to doormen, is organized.

"It's no coincidence that the states with the biggest budget problems are the ones with the highest taxation."

It isn't? What about Arizona, which ranks 41st in tax burden. They've got 1.2 billion hole (10% of budget, compared to NY's 13% and CA's 14%)

Taxes are high, yes--but the RENT is what really makes it difficult to get ahead here. There really should be some regulation. Paying over $2k for a one-bedroom apartment is just ridiculous. It makes it impossible.

Ditto. Rent is my biggest expense monthly, then comes the food and I hardly buy clothes.

What about Arizona, which ranks 41st in tax burden. They've got 1.2 billion hole (10% of budget, compared to NY's 13% and CA's 14%)

I've no doubt Arizona state government can be as wasteful as any other. Arizona does have a few problems unique to some other states, like Florida and Nevada, with a massive logjam of unsold, or foreclosed homes. Arizona has also had to pour money into border patrol operations.

How many of us would feel better about our financial situation if we had been able to keep all the money that's been devoted to Social Security? We have been told, in so many words, not to plan to receive that money when we are retired. This is your government at work. Ostensibly to assist you - in reality to line their own pockets, and then walk away.

im glad i didnt listen in school. Ive lived most of my life fine without a degree. I knew those subawy adds were bullshyt. I am sucess already, and you cant give anything i dont already have. Go fuck yourself berkley your stupid unconfident hoe to sucessful confident hoe commercials dont fool me!

Reading these posts is making me hungry, but the only thing I can afford is something off the dollar menu at McDonald's. Now that I am on the topic, why the hell do they call it the dollar menu in Manhattan when there are only 3 items that sell for $1???? Corporate greed cashing in on poor slobs like me... See you on the bread lines folks-wait bread is still $4 a loaf!

Drewo- yeah, so-so security is a huge rip. And unaffected by your deductions. And what's the deal with the cut-off? That's where they should START collecting it.

Food costs too much. I spend a long time at my supermarket looking for bargains, and then my idiot husband guzzles a gallon of milk like we're made of money, and buys 6-packs of Bud light for 9 bucks! Nine bucks! So I figure my spending in 6-pack-units which are equal to 9 dollars. Example: I bought an pedomter for less than 3 6-pack-units.

I have some secret money socked away but laughably little.

People are leaving low tax states like Nevada because the jobs are going.

Then where are the people or the jobs going? They sure aren't opening new businesses here since we've pretty successfully chased every business not located in Manhattan out of the state.

proposes=proposals

High taxes, high rents. The twin devils of NYC that are killing away everything that was once great or merely even good about this city. That so many here are struggling to stay fed is beyond belief.