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What It’s Like to Buy Groceries in Poverty

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A hidden camera in a San Francisco grocery store last year captured patrons’ reactions when their items ring up as five times more expensive, adjusted to reflect the cost of living near the poverty line. In ‘Poverty Line Prices,’ above, people are shocked when they see their totals. When you’re poor, milk can have an adjusted cost of $24. The video comes from Tipping Point Community, an organization that combats poverty in the Bay Area, and advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners. In San Francisco, the average annual family income is $153,000, five times the $24,300 a year that families living on the poverty line earn (or roughly 1 in 10 families in San Francisco). The video was filmed at a high-end grocery store in Nob Hill, one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods.”

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