If you find actual farms and coops you can get good deals.
There’s a local food coop that sells large boxes full of produce for $20 every Thursday - but you don’t get to choose what’s in the box.
Some of them do a half-off sale for everything they've got at the last half-hour of the market, that's good to know. Some are just buying from the wholesalers, too, that's something to watch out for as others note - but some of those run lower margins than the local grocery stores, so it's cheaper to buy from them.
Even then, I was shocked at the low prices.
I stumbled on this Farmer's Market by accident.
I had this security job guarding the Cow Palace on the weekends. The insurance was less if they had a guy on the premises.
I remember seeing my boss (Bill. The nicest boss I ever had. Never forget this huge man walking towards me on a Sunday in complete darkness besides the emergency lights crying while holding a dead cat. He loved the abandoned cats that neighbors left on the property. The higher ups authorized poisoning the cats. I could feel his pain. When I saw the bait traps I disposed of the poison. I was the only one there during the day so I got no reprimands. I thought I'm fired, while carting my huge box of fruits/veggies, and honey, but he didn't care.
Since that day of shopping at that Farmer's market I was ruined I guess? Everone I have been to since was overpriced.
(Here's something to think about. There is a tiny model of the Cow Palace buried below the auditorium floor. Only a few people knew about it then. It was left there by the architects. I had keys to most rooms, and did my fair share of exploring. Seeing that model of the Cow Palace was something out of a Twillight Zone episode. They even put in tiny cars in the parking lots. It was all dusty, but an exact model of the Cow Palace in Daly City.)
I cook the same meal almost everyday. I have precooked a pot of white rice (trying to use brown) that sits in the fridge. I start cooking a chicken quarter or two and then microwave some mixed frozen vegetables (corn, green beans, carrots). Then I put some of the rice on top of that, microwave again, then the chicken is done (add some seasoning) and eat with salt. I listen to a podcast while cooking.
Otherwise I eat junk food (BK/TB/McDs or ramen shop). I do have a binge eating problem (bored or way to fight brain dead). But I can also fast eg. eat a meal a day for weeks to drop 10s of lbs. It's not easy to keep it consistent. Also I am more productive if I don't eat the entire day (except caffeine/water), eating induces tiredness.
Whoa, your job is safe from the likes of me. I have undergone some tough times, but… that’s a bridge too far. Yikes.
Some also sell imported fruits and veggies...
One local farmers market puts in significant effort verifying that the farmers are indeed local, including visiting the farm. People still show up with trucks full of identical pies, swearing they spent all day baking them.
However, you have to learn to cook. This is a barrier for some people. To me cooking is relaxing and I've got a lot of low-effort high-speed methods, but then I have a background as a wet lab researcher and that's about 100X as painstaking, where you're tracking every single thing you do in a lab notebook, mixing up solutions with precisely measured masses and volumes, adjusting pHs, running timers and working in this high-pressure environment where one screwup can waste a whole day's work if not a whole month's. Cooking in comparison, I don't use recipes, it's just pure fun. Get a decent collection of spices, that's important. Learn to clean as you go, and you can take most raw ingredients and go right to a great meal in half an hour.
If you've never done much cooking, a course isn't a bad idea. Indian cooking classes are great for teaching you how to cook a wide variety of grains/beans/veggies. Baking is more of a hassle as you have to measure stuff out and be more careful with temps and times, and tends to take a bit longer, but has the benefit of being able to make larger dishes for more people in one shot.