Financial efficiency and value often appear to be at odds. Amazon certainly appear to spend less resources in the delivery of goods. Low cost of acquisition isn't necessarily correlated with greater value in terms of human fulfilment.
I've often wondered why we don't have [more/widespread] community kitchens, less work needed for food production, reduced waste and transportation costs, etc.. Why can't I go somewhere and get a quality, healthy meal that is cheaper than what I can make at home.
The short answer is "be the change you want to see in the world"
The long answer is a consumer's collective. If you are in the US a good example are the credit unions, where fees (of all kinds) largely don't exist. In the US, Consumer's Collectives legally have a democratic corporate structure. Private corporations legally are more like a dictatorship. Public corporations have a board of directors and are legally more like an oligarchy (unless one single person constitutes most of the board).
Assuming you're an engineer, it is probably not cheaper for you to cook at home if you factor in the cost of your own time. As soon as you involve a bunch of people that have no connection to each other and ask them to start doing work, they start wanting money. Hence, no community kitchens of software engineers: they can make a lot more money programming than by cooking you your food.
