I'm not a smoker, so I did an average calculation considering a cigarette pack costs about 1$, as I found prices varying from 1$-1,60$ and I know people usually smoke a pack a day (20 cigarettes).
Hmm, how do we call this thing, being lucky or truly unlucky that a pack is so cheap? It's usually around 5-7 for a pack here depending on the blend. I'm usually against taxation but making things like alcohol and tobacco cheap for countries with low income shouldn't be a thing, normally one should think of making them even more prohibitive than in rich countries where they can afford this, but it seems like every politician wants to keep those cheap
Panem et circenses to keep the masses happy.
It shouldn't be a
thing for low income countries but I remember years ago I read a news where in one poor country the government increased excise duty on Tobacco and Alcohol and there was a big protest inside the country. People were saying things like:
We have low income and how to get the fun out of life if we aren't able to buy tobacco and alcohol. Now they want to take it away from us. || So, yeah, the government truly keeps it lower to keep people quiet but at the same time even if you try to increase prices on these addictive things, it will cause more protest among them. I think it's like being a poor and having a possibility of little fun at the same time sometimes becomes a comfort zone that people don't want to leave.
Yeah, you have low costs with gas and probably bike transport, low wages, if that is applied to a high-density populated area you can bring those fees down, anyhow I have zero delivery fees here for some only shops but it still can't beat in store prices, at most it'ss the same prices but you will never get a better deal online alone for groceries, most real good deals are of limited availability and not even feature in the app as they are sold out in hours.
Second, most of the chain stores have a 20-50% discount on products near the expiring date, those are only for in person so somebody in desperate need of savings will still go to a physical store.
I still think that the best way to save is by what you buy not really what method of shopping you use.
That depends on the country. As far as I know there isn't a huge difference between buying grocery things from Amazon vs supermarkets in the USA but if you compare amazon.de prices to Kaufland for example, you'll find tremendous difference. And in Germany Rewe is an only option to buy directly from the store in its original price, most supermarkets don't have delivery or you have to use some 3rd party apps that aren't a great option either.
Btw once I was in one Eastern European city where Bolt Food was a new thing at that time and they had so amazing promotions for more than a month that it was very savvy for me to order absolutely every food and grocery online via their app instead of shopping in local supermarkets. Almost everything was -40% off for a very long time.