Noodles, Costco, and a Poverty Epiphany

A few months ago, I introduced my family to Costco Wholesale Club and my mother and sisters report that my dad is now head over heels IN LOVE with Costco... I wonder if he's faking doctors appointments in Dallas just to have an excuse to drive the 2 hours to get to the closest Costco. Yeah... Texans like buying in bulk. We have plenty of space to store it so why not?

It's the opposite in Guinea. Everything is broken down into very small packages. Market vendors buy a bottle of oil and sell it in small little bags.... 5 packs of razors and sell each one individually.

I never really thought much about it and the meaning of the small packages of everything until I went to the market with a value chain consultant. She walked up to a woman selling tiny bags of noodles... maybe 10 macaroni shells in one bag... held it up and said, "This... this is poverty." Hmmm... I stopped for a second and thought about it. Macaroni noodles are poverty?

Then, I -- feeling pretty dumb after finishing a graduate degree in international development -- had the epiphany that package sizes = disposable income. Costco exists in the US because people have enough income at their disposal that they can buy alot at once and stock up. Prepare for the future.

Guineans in the Forest Region only have enough disposable income that they can buy 10 macaroni noodles at a time. No income buffer. No savings. No safety net. One meal at a time.... 10 noodles at a time... That, my friends, is why noodles are poverty.

Learn sumthin' ever day, huh? ;)