Now I think I better understand the higher cost of living in urban areas: you can’t buy in bulk.
Never? That’s really odd. What do homeless people keep their stuff in, in your area, if they don’t have shopping carts?
Our part of suburban LA is mostly Chinese immigrants, and there are about 4 Chinese grocery stores and one American grocery store within a very short distance. From my observation, it looks like the Chinese grandmas and grandpas get up early and walk to the grocery store(s) to get food for the day while their children are getting ready for work and taking the grandkids to school. They then walk home with the bags in the grocery cart. The old folks either don’t have a license in the US or are using the walk as a way to get their exercise in - taking the cart home allows them to buy more, and it acts as a walker to make the walk home easier.
Because of this, there are a lot more shopping carts on the street than in other suburban areas I’ve lived in; the trucks come by and pick them up really regularly, though, so it’s not a blight on the landscape.
When I lived in NYC, there were several supermarkets within a block or two of my apartment. One had the best produce, another had the best meats, another had the best bakery, etc. So I’d stop in one on my way home from work, depending on what I was running out of.
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A lot of my neighbors who either don’t have cars or don’t want to spend the money on gas will just push the shopping cart all the way home. The local supermarket usually has a very small number of mis-matched carts at any given time, and I’ve seen someone in trucks driving around the neighborhood collecting the carts.
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When I lived right in the city, I saw this all the time. People did their shopping and just pushed the grocery cart home, then left it on the sidewalk. The local grocery store hired a couple with a truck to drive around and retrieve carts once a week.
In the UK: It’s not usual here (actually I would say it’s not done) but I had Spanish neighbours who appropriated a supermarket trolley and pushed it to Tescos and back a couple of times a week. They either returned it or took it with them when they moved too.
At my grocery store, which is smack in the downtown of a medium size city, the wheels on the shopping cart automatically lock when the cart reaches the door of the building. You can’t bring them outside, period.
Is the parking lot inside the building as well, I’m assuming? Or do people have to carry their groceries to the car out in the parking lot?
I think this is the big difference in urban living. When I visit my family in Dallas, I notice that there are giant supermarkets, but they are far apart–as much as a mile apart from each other. But in the urban places I have lived (Vienna, Beirut), there are smaller markets, but they are often within a few blocks of each other, so no matter where you live, there is always some place within walking distance. So it’s no hassle to go every day, or every couple of days. In Beirut, my wife would call during work and give me a grocery list and I would walk to the store on the way home.
The real problem for people in rural areas is: how to get *rid *of everything, come zuccini season?
The supermarket is on the way home from the station, so I usually pop in on my way back from work. Never really buy more than a couple of days’ worth of food at a time. It is a two minute walk away too, so if I forget anything it is easy to go back.
You have to carry them. The grocery store is meant for people who live downtown, and walk. If you’re driving to the store, you should probably be going someplace else.
I think a big difference is also how often you go out to eat. My Wife and I live in the sticks in the mountains, and we only go out maaaayyybbbeee 4 times a month. Say two or three times for breakfast, and maybe a nice dinner or lunch.
Our kitchen is a big deal to us. We just spent a ton of money remodeling it.
You don’t even need a second residence. For her monthly shopping trips, a friend of mine rented a Zip Car and drove out to the suburbs. She’d park it in the underground garage and unload everything into the elevator. After she put everything away, she’d return the car to the Zip Car place, which was right around the corner from her.
No mess, no fuss. But then again I have no idea how much she paid monthly for the Zip Car.
If she needed something in the meantime – say, anything perishable – she bought it at a corner deli near where she worked. Or she’d hop the crosstown bus and go to the only area supermarket.
On topic:
I live 4 blocks from a 24 hour supermarket so I usually walk there. I use Envirosax shopping bags (very sturdy, large enough to loop over your shoulder yet the handle is such that it won’t drag on the ground if you don’t) and I also have a wheeled cart if I am buying heavy things.
My supermarket has those things on the wheels which lock up if you try and take them out of the parking lot, so what ends up happening is dozens of carts are bunched up at the edges of the lot. It’s super annoying - there have been times when there are not any available to use because I happened to be there before they send someone out there to unlock them.
Off topic:
Small world. Esther is a good friend (I also built a website for her new project). I’ll be seeing her tomorrow and I’ll tell her you say hi, if you like.
in a big city i saw shopping carts left near, within a block or three of the store.
a low tech solution was about 8 to 10 feet away from the outside of the doors were pillars (maybe 4 feet tall) spaced so a cart would not pass through. you pulled your car up and unloaded.
The bottom line: It’s a real PITA.
Been there, did it for a little while, and I don’t want to repeat it.
It’s one of the reasons that I don’t live in a downtown area.
Cars are great. A car with a trunk full of 2 weeks worth of groceries parked in front of your house/apt is even better.
I carry my groceries in a backpack and walk to/from the supermarket every couple of days. One of the many reasons I’m not fat.
You don’t have cupboards?
There were two grocery stores within walking distance of our old apartment. I used to take my big bag with wheels and my two reusable bags and go every couple days. But that grocery store was super expensive so I then took the car and drove out to our nearest Trader Joe’s. Gotta love TJ’s.
I have a family of 6, and when I used to have to walk to the store, I bought this little wheeled cart to help schlep my groceries. And I went shopping a lot more often.