The realities of grocery-cart economics

My husband grew up in a mom-and-pop grocery store in a small town. As a child he often would push the bread aside and sleep on one of the shelves to take a nap. His family actually had to close the store for a couple of days in order to attend our wedding.

There were two stores in their little town. When their competitor lowered the price on a desirable item to bring in more customers, my mother-in-law would do the same and then some, often selling these items below their actual cost in order to survive.