> These accessible food options come with a premium that I strongly suspect put them out of what a median income household can sustainably afford.

No they don’t. Even my local Walmart has cheap vegetable selections included pre cut versions.

You know what is expensive, though? Meat. There’s still plenty of meat consumption in the median household.

It’s not a price issue.

The premium is surprisingly small (primarily because chopped goods ship better and need less protection than whole ones)

> These accessible food options

First, pre-cut isn't that much more expensive. Second, cutting is an accessibility thing now? A kitchen knife and 5 minute YouTube video should have anyone being to chop/dice without much trouble. And once they learn they will only get faster/better at it allowing them to use whole veggies adding more variety.

Whole Foods fresh vegetables prices are comparable to elsewhere, same with some dairy. However, everything else carries a premium and for budget minded people you need to avoid it.

I'm not sure I believe that.

Not to mention the median income (in PPP) is higher in the US all but 4 countries.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in...

> These accessible food options come with a premium

On one hand, you a processing step. On the other hand, you can process 'ugly' produce into mince. (Mince also transports more compactly volume-wise.)

The pre-chopped coleslaw mix is like 3 bucks for a huge bag. 1 pound of pre-sliced frozen peppers I think is $2. Some of it depends on where you’re shopping, I’m sure this stuff would be 50-100% more at Whole Foods the next town over.