Convenience Stores

My friend S asked me:
"K and I have noticed lately that lot of these Chinese run convenience stores tend to try to sell you stuff that has expired or is just about to.
Is that a trick they just have to do to make ends meet or are they just being cheap?"

My response:
"Are you asking me because I'm Chinese or because my parents used to run a grocery store?

I'm surprised a lot of the ones in Vancouver can stay in business, because 5 minutes away there is probably a major grocery store. The stuff probably expires before they can sell it. If you are talking about milk, Dairyland delivers if you have decent volume, and I think they take away stuff that you can't sell. These stores probably don't do much business, so they pick up their stock from Superstore. Then if they can't sell it, they can't afford to throw it away either.

So the answer is both.

When my parents first opened their store, they didn't have much business. We sold milk, produce as well as chips, pop, candy, etc. My dad had to go to the wholesale to pick up everything. My mom says the broccoli would start flowering, and the cabbage would turn brown, so she would pick out the flowers and peel off the outer layers of leaves. My dad had some business smarts and eventually business started flowing. Milk was delivered 3 times a week, my dad still picked up fruits and veg. 2x week - so he could pick out the best stuff and people would come to us instead of Safeway. We were one of the two grocery stores within a 5 mile radius (guessing). Anyway, I can imagine that business for these stores was probably like those early days. Sometimes, I walk into one, and want to offer to deliver fliers for them (pop was 25 cents, so was a chocolate bar), or maybe my dad can volunteer as a consultant for them in his retirement! Or maybe they make enough to get by and that's all they want.

It is a shame my brothers didn't take over my parents' store. It would have been a fairly good living for them."