Actually, that's not true. We decided just for the heck of it to try some pre-shredded supposed parmagiano reggiano cheese that was on BOGO at our grocery within the last few months. It wasn't cheap either, at least for a single tub of it, not as expensive as the real stuff but still not cheap. We decided to try it just cause it was BOGO and we were out of the real stuff that's $20/pound at our regular convenient grocery. It was crap, tasted more like wax and and didn't melt right (made small clumps) when added to a sauce (tomato or cream based). I don't remember what brand it was but it wasn't some off the wall brand. I think we used most of one tub and chucked the other.
Let's put it this way, from now on, we'll either pay the $20/pound or make the trip to one of the other places where it's $12-14/pound or do without than try something like that again.