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Thanks to our old friend Baumol [1], cleanliness is not the norm in any typical grocery store in the 1st world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol's_cost

• dmos62 4y ago
  You're saying that people who work in grocery stores don't care about their job performance, because their level of pay is guaranteed by workers in other industries being productive? That's a cynical thought. By the way, where I'm from (EU), cleanliness is definitely the norm for grocery stores.
  • harpersealtako 4y ago
    US grocery stores in general seem no less clean than western European grocery stores from my limited experience. I don't know what the parent poster is talking about -- even Walmarts in the bad parts of town seldom seem conspicuously "dirty".
  • mercutio2 4y ago
    Come on. I’ve been to many, many small grocery stores in Western Europe. Some had obviously old/dirty fixtures, signage, and floors, some had newer cleaner looking equipment. The average in Europe was much, much “dirtier” than Americans on average will put up with. “Dirty” in this context means not-new-looking. I’d much rather not pay for someone to replace things that are perfectly functional. But many consumers (especially Americans) prefer extremely well lit, very new looking equipment. So I think you may have this exactly wrong. Europe has much dirtier stores, because it doesn’t value cosmetic polish as much as health and cost savings.
    • dmos62 4y ago
      To be fair, different countries in Europe are culturally different. And, to be even fairer, what we mean by "dirty" is wildly personal, I think.