Cheap fruit in ChinaTown

NPR had an interesting story a couple of days ago.
The story was about how fruit is up to 12 times cheaper in Chinatown, than in supermarkets.

Poor neighborhoods have a reputation for not having very much fresh fruit, and when they do, it is very expensive. You know storyline: the only thing in the hood is McDonald's and Church's chicken. THE MAN wants to keep us fat and give us high blood pressure to keep us down.

Back to Chinatown, according to the produce expert in the story, "They’re moving volume."
Instead of buying one or two peppers, most buyers get bags full of vegetables.

According to salesman Harvey Garrowitz, shopping habits in Chinatown play a major role.

GARROWITZ: They go out every day like in Europe. They still go out with a shopping bag and buy fresh.

Salesman Frank Shambry says THAT affects prices.

SHAMBRY: A riper product is definitely worth less money and people that buy today to eat today can buy a riper product where people that shop once a week, they want to make sure the commodities they bring home are going last that entire week, so you’ll end up paying a little bit more for product that’s greener or harder.

REPORTER: So shoppers’ buying a lot allows vendors to accept a smaller profit margin on each item. And since the shoppers are buying every day vendors can sell stuff that could go bad tomorrow, stuff that distributors want to get rid of, stuff that’s cheap.



Huh? So maybe it's the free market and not institionalized racism.