$111 Turkey? Grocer Jacks Prices 5 Times Higher So Shoppers Feel Sting Of Poverty
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Imagine paying more than $111 for a Thanksgiving turkey. Sounds high?
The cost of living in San Francisco is high, but for residents who live below the poverty line, it is much, much more than a statistic - it is a reality.
A family of four living at or below the poverty line, earns only $24,300. The average income in the Bay Area is $150,000, five times more. So, the price of a turkey and all the trimmings feels like five times more, when you make five times less.
In an effort to share the reality of "life on the poverty line," Tipping Point, a local non=profit, took over a Nob Hill grocery store and marked up prices five times higher. A hidden camera videotaped the experiment.
"Spinach... $25... butter... $27.45," says the man at the checkout counter, as one-by-one, well-heeled shoppers register sticker shock and disbelief.
"Sixty-six dollars for bread?"
One woman tells him, "I come here all the time... that tea is not $25,"
"It's a special today," explains the man behind the counter. "Poverty line prices: everything is five times the normal cost."
Tipping Point calculates the Poverty Line Price' of a Thanksgiving turkey is $111.50, a gallon of milk is $23.51 and a monthly buss pass is $353.37.
According to organization, one in ten Bay Area families lives on $24,300 or less.