SAN FRANCISCO―The Tipping Point, a San Francisco based organization, set up a social experiment and posed as grocery clerks in Nob Hill during Thanksgiving week, according to reports.
The Tipping Point is an institution dedicated to helping people get out of poverty. The organization’s main objective was to inform those who may not fall under the national poverty line what the simple cost of living expenses, such as groceries, are like for those who are in poverty.
Prices were raised exactly five times the normal price to expose the cost of living in San Francisco, as well as the surrounding Bay Area. The region’s average income is $150,000, roughly fives times the federal poverty for a family of four. The experiment portrayed the price of butter from $5.49 to $27.45; the cost of a Thanksgiving turkey skyrocketed to $111.00. The experiment was named Poverty Line Prices.
The experiment was filmed with hidden cameras. where the customer’s reactions were recorded.
Tipping Point founder and CEO Daniel Lurie explained why the organization conducted the experiment.
“Every day, more than one million Bay Area residents are forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying the rent, buying medicine and paying for school books. And, lack of financial resources is just one of the many challenges facing those living below the poverty line. In a region with so many resources and so much creativity, we simply have to do more to help break the cycle of multigenerational poverty in the Bay Area,” said Lurie.
