11 Comments
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Ryan M Allen's avatar

My favorite grocery shopping experience was when I lived in Manhattan. We had a great grocery store three blocks from the house. If we forgot something, my wife would start cooking and Id run back to get whatever we needed. So convenient. Not a bodega either, full grocery. No parking either.

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Mark R. Brown, AICP's avatar

Nice. I'm 2 blocks away from my grocery store. It makes life so much easier.

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bnjd's avatar

Only visited, but Fairway was amazing.

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Ryan M Allen's avatar

Ya, I wasn't too far from a Fairway in one place I lived. But I heard that they have gone down hill a bit in recent years.

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bnjd's avatar

What is perceived as a great advantage of US supermarkets is the great array of selection made possible by the large floorspaces is less of an advantage when we consider how unhealthy and low-quality many of these product arrays are. What’s the advantage to having access to fifty flavors of Pringles? Thus, defense of US supermarkets is in large part a defense of access to crap as well as a defense of car dependence.

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Josh Vasquez's avatar

Recently got a bike with a rack and saddlebags to fit ~4 bags. Still getting used to going more often and it’s hard to get myself out of the house again after work to grocery shop but it’s just an adjustment I’m sure I’ll get the hang of. I’m fortunate I’m only shopping for myself and my wife and dog so we don’t require as much as a family with kids or more people in the house.

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Mark R. Brown, AICP's avatar

It's healthy to leave the house. Uber Eats and the like enable unhealthy behaviors.

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bnjd's avatar

Another trick is eating out. That can be as simple and cheap as buying an apple from a fruit stand and eating on the run, but prepared food, such as a slice of pizza works too. The great thing about the economy of space in the service of walking trips for food is that it biases toward eating less, which carries its own health benefit for the typical American.

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Sindy's avatar

When we lived in Germany, it took us 5 minutes to walk to the nearest supermarket. And we go there every other day. There is no need to drive and we are handle to carry all the groceries by hand.

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WorldTraveler's avatar

I use a shopping trolley, and rely on the bus or Uber to get to the grocery store and back. It works. The car is easier for transporting all the food, but loading and unloading everything can be so tedious too.

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Amy's avatar

I do the European model and go to the grocery store at least every other day (sometimes more than once in a day), on foot. I live in lower Manhattan though, where I have three major grocers in walking distance plus countless bodegas.

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