Walmart and Aldi and Sams are not inside the villages, that is why prices at those stores can be as inexpensive as they are.

Just last week, I decided to "let the smoke out" of an outlet in the garage

Turns out it tripped one the GFI outles and simply pushing the reset button didn't seem to work.

I tried everything I could think of, and in the process, decided to test some of the other GFIs in the house. NONE of them would reset.

We called Grant Electric (saw their truck with a guy working on the lights at our postal station) and they were there the next day.

Turns out THESE GFIs require a screwdriver to push the reset button, and all was well. He replaced the one I fried and reset all of the others, including one on the patio I'd missed.

When the bill came, I was shocked at how low it was. Here in the DC suburbs, it would have easily been double the cost...

When we're back at the end of the month, he'll be replacing a chandelier, switching out 3 hi-hats to pendant lights and replacing all of our GFIs to a better quality outlet...

The major retail stores within the Villages are priced the same nationwide. Grocery store chains priced the same nationwide. Restaurant chains within the Villages priced the same region wide. I see no difference at all. Specialty stores are high no matter where they are as are privately owned restaurants. People like to complain about everything, especially around here, apparently have nothing better to do.

Please support Villages businesses
 

I totally agree with you. Also, if we don't support Villages businesses they will leave or go out of business. So everyone please support local businesses even if it may cost a bit more. Quality of life will be much better with conveniently located businesses.
Best wishes. I am not a local business owner!

I have a golfing buddy living outside TV and here's his take (opinion) about prices on services.

Any service company that does business inside TV ( electricians, plumbers, lawn, etc.) he stays clear of and here's why.

He claims there's so many "fat cats" in TV with tons of $$$$ that come down here from Boston, NY, Pittsburg etc. that are stupid enough to take the first estimate for services because money don't matter to them.

Then these same Service Co.'s come in the surrounding subdivisions and except to charge the same prices.

First thing he ask when they show up at his front door: "Do you do business in TV"?
If they proudly say "yes", he say's "Get the hell out of here, your prices are to high".

Without a doubt. TV is a tourist attraction, the average village resident has $$ and they are too lazy to trave. When I first moved here I was searching for a golf cart....I bought a club car out of Orlando $1,500 less expensove.

I think he is a blowhard………

Paid 3.35 per gal for rec gas for golf cart at the Sumter Landing store and noticed today that WAWA at 441 and 466 the price is the same for that fuel.

The market self-corrects. if you aren't willing to pay the prices, don't pay them and do your shopping in Lady Lake or Leesburg etc

It does appear that the developer charges quite a bit for rent and that is a reason so many stores locate themselves outside the bubble.

The stores we prefer to shop at are outside the Villages and see no reason to change just to allow the developer to make more.

Sams and Aldi are where we do the great bulk of our shopping and they located themselves outside and that is where we will continue to shop.

How could it be a surprise that anything in Florida costs less than in the DC suburbs? The wages and cost of living are WAY higher in DC.

Quite a few food items cost more here than where we came from in Va.

Apparently trucking will cost more as truckers come down here full and head north empty.

OJ costs more and no idea why that should be as oranges are grown down here.

They are typically 30 to 40 cents per gallon higher for non-ethanol (recreation) gas at TV cart stores. If they are the same as WaWa now expect it to go up tomorrow at SS and Sumter.

I think it’s a more a comparison of store types. In the Squares you have a lot of boutique stores versus the big box stores and large brand name stores as are in the shopping centers. Boutique stores are always more expensive. All of the shopping centers around the Villages serve not only people from the Villages but the general public, too. They have to in order to get the needed sales. I don’t see a price difference in the Walmart’s, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Bealls, Publix or Winn Dixie stores in the shopping centers accessible by golf cart compared to ones further away from the Villages.

Also as far as rents being higher in the Villages than in “outside areas,” that’s a myth. Although the Villages Developers are big, I think either 5th or 7th largest retirement home builder in the USA, they aren’t THAT big. Not big enough to be able to charge a big box store or even a regional grocery overly premium rents. Location for these stores is determined by researching a lot of data and if some of the basics flash well in your potential catchment area, that’s just the start. To start for example, say a 45,000 sq. ft. grocery, Publix or Winn Dixie is looking at an area... They are gonna start with population and income - rooftops and cash. They know they want at least $12 per sq ft average weekly sales. Consumers, us, spend about 5.8% of disposable income on food, not including restaurants. So do the math and you can see the needed population to serve the store. That’s just the rudimentary beginning. There are are a ton of other factors. And when doing the analysis, really golf cart traffic doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, even here. If it did, all the shopping centers would have 100’s of golf cart parking spaces, and just a couple car spaces. That would be great for them, a lot less blacktop and retention ponds. But that’s not the case.

I retired from commercial real estate and find most people don’t understand that unique market. Is not like renting a house where you pay a flat rent every month. The commercial market is considerably more complicated in its leases/agreements than that. There is CAM, Nets, Triple Nets, Land Lease, Build to Suit, just to name a few you might have heard of, and a ton more exist that you’ve never heard of. Bottom line is the Developer does make money in their commercial endeavors, at least I hope they do, but it’s in all kinds of different ways. And if you’re not making money, I mean, why do it? So I guess that answers that question.

Licensed electricians are paid half of what they're paid up here?

Liability and Health Insurance costs half?

Electrical wholesale supplies costs half?

Trucks (and their maintenance) costs half?

Sure, why not?