no they're not cheap no matter how you look at it. fresh vegetables (especially organic) are really, really expensive in the U.S.A.
That's kind of strange and worrying to me. I mean I suppose it depends on which vegetable you're buying but let's take french fries as an example.
This (image) would cost you, say, 1 EUR around here. But for 1 EUR I could also buy one and a half kilos worth of potatoes, even from the supermarket. And sure, you still need the frying oil, but even then it's cheaper if you consider the volume.
The same goes for canned pasta sauce. If you buy 1 EUR worth of tomatoes, celery, onions and carrot I'm sure you could make a way better sauce which, considering the volume, is cheaper.