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August 19, 2025

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Nantucket’s Six-Figure Working Class Can’t Afford to Eat

By Rebecca Settar

Even $150,000 a year isn’t enough to buy groceries on America’s most exclusive island.

Sarah had $40 in her bank account and an impossible decision. A few years ago, the college-educated marketing professional stood in a Nantucket grocery store, forced to choose between dinner for herself or a birthday cake for her nine-year-old son.

She chose the cake and went hungry for three nights. Mind you, this wasn’t happening in some cash-strapped small town—this was on a glittering island paradise where summer visitors drop $1,000 a night on hotel rooms while mega-yachts glisten in the harbor like floating mansions.

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