mynewaccount4567 t1_ja8o5hb wrote on February 27, 2023 at 5:45 PM

Reply to comment by mb34i in ELI5: why do grocery stores in the US keep such a large inventory? Aside from being prepared for episodic panic buying like toilet paper or bottled water, is there an economic reason to do this? How much of the food ends up going bad? by DrEverythingBAlright

While you aren’t wrong about them serving a lot of people, a whole city is vastly overstating it. In my area, there are 4 grocery stores within a 5 minute drive. 2 from the same chain so it’s not even strictly a competition thing. I don’t live in a super dense area either. Pretty typical suburban outskirts of a medium sized city.