You make way less selling things wholesale, than you do selling small amounts to a larger number of people.

I'm not arguing that. I can empathize when the costs are broken down.

But what I don't understand is how they can justify selling u-pick at $4/pound.

I remember many years ago, being able to get 50lbs of potatoes for less than what the stores were selling 10lbs for, because I would go directly to the farm growing them. That's how I would imagine it's supposed to work.

But this trend of charging way, way more for stuff directly from the farm or farmer's market is frustrating.

I see apples from local orchards selling for $0.99 / lb in local grocery stores (then those same apples are 3-4x more when you pick them yourself). So if nobody is losing money, maybe farms are undercharging wholesalers and overcharging u-pick customers?