It doesn't negate your point, but here in the UK, in a village of <1000, mostly elderly people; with a couple of buses a day; nearest market town is several mil

It doesn't negate your point, but here in the UK, in a village of <1000, mostly elderly people; with a couple of buses a day; nearest market town is several miles away .. people order shopping online, and some suppliers (eg fresh fish, local farm vegetable boxes) bring a van around. Even in rural areas you can get supermarket home delivery, it costs a few quid for the delivery but is considerably cheaper than car ownership. Pretty much everyone has cars though.