Former Trader Joe’s president Doug Rauch is realizing a tremendous idea: He’s opening a non-profit store in a working-class Boston neighborhood that will sell expired and overstock healthy food items at junk-food prices. He was featured recently on NPR, and here’s the opening of his New York Times Q&A which was conducted by Hope Reeves:
“Question:
You’re opening a store called Daily Table early next year. It’s going to sell food that’s past its sell-by date. Can you elaborate?
Doug Rauch:
Yes, and food that’s cosmetically blemished or food that is excess — like fish that is perfectly wholesome, but not the fish they were going out to catch. We’re going to grab all of this stuff, bring it on-site, cook prepared meals with it and also offer milk, eggs, bread and produce. It’s going to be priced the same as junk food, basically.
Question:
And junk food is so cheap.
Doug Rauch:
If you’re on food stamps, the average family has about $3 to spend on dinner. For that you can get about 3,700 calories’ worth of soda, crackers, cookies and snacks, or you can get 300 or 320 calories of fruits and vegetables. It’s economically rational to feed your kids junk.”