4 ms·

I think this conversation has gotten a little exaggerated or maybe just over-specific to the bay area, the US is full of corner shops operated by famous brands

I think this conversation has gotten a little exaggerated or maybe just over-specific to the bay area, the US is full of corner shops operated by famous brands like 7-11. They're usually combined with gas stations. The American phrase is "convenience store." You have to leave your suburban housing development to go to them, but if you live in the city they're probably within walking distance. They don't exist in the sphere of highly paid professionals, though, because they're eminently practical from a commercial standpoint and sell inexpensive junk food, novelty knives, figurines, cigarettes, and whatever you'd imagine being there just to move off the shelves. I've only seen useful goods in a handful of them, and it's always sold in tiny quantities (imagine buying a single roll of toilet paper) because their clientele might not have the capital to invest in bulk purchases. If you want to put this in a sort of social context, it's that laborers actually have quite a bit of money in America because having a lot of cash relative to the price of goods is the one part of the promise that comes true, and as a result they're catered to by a lot of retail. Those inexpensive retail outlets are the subject of endless complaints from people who you could call the conscious middle class and make up most of what you would think of as cheap American consumerism. The quintessential duo of Walmart and McDonalds is exceeded by convenience stores along this dimension and for most HN users, they don't exist in that they never think about them, and post things like "I don't have a corner shop."

ghaff 2y ago
I'm not sure of all the reasons but you absolutely do have a lot of smaller supermarkets in Europe with chains like Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose, and so forth (most familiar with UK) which are certainly smaller than most US supermarkets but pretty price competitive with decent products. As you say, in the US you have convenience stores which are pretty crappy for anything other than junk food or buying a coke. Even in NYC, I'm not sure bodegas are much better.
Symbiote 2y ago
I wasn't clear. 7-11 exists in Denmark more-or-less as you describe (bit more food, less junk). The Netto shops I linked to are small supermarkets, selling a full range of groceries — fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, bread, cheese, milk, eggs, pasta, rice, toiletries, cleaning products, light bulbs, ... I need hardly describe a grocery store. Toilet paper comes in a pack of 8 or 10 or so. Meat is probably in 250g and 500g packs, with a couple of options at 1kg. There are 6 kinds of toothpaste, 6 types of rice etc. In much of the city, there are multiple shops like this within 5 minutes' walk. I do the majority of my grocery shopping in a shop like this, which is why I'd never consider buying toothpaste online.
rsynnott 2y ago
> They don't exist in the sphere of highly paid professionals, though, because they're eminently practical from a commercial standpoint and sell inexpensive junk food, novelty knives, figurines, cigarettes, and whatever you'd imagine being there just to move off the shelves. That's a different thing. What they're talking about is, effectively, just a very small supermarket, usually run by national chains. I have in walking distance of me about six instances of Tesco; one big one, one medium one, three small ones (single storefront) and one tiny one (convenience store sized). They all have basically the same core stock, at _mostly_ the same prices (I think the really tiny one is a little more expensive).

ghaff 2y ago

I'm not sure of all the reasons but you absolutely do have a lot of smaller supermarkets in Europe with chains like Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose, and so forth (most familiar with UK) which are certainly smaller than most US supermarkets but pretty price competitive with decent products. As you say, in the US you have convenience stores which are pretty crappy for anything other than junk food or buying a coke. Even in NYC, I'm not sure bodegas are much better.

Symbiote 2y ago

I wasn't clear. 7-11 exists in Denmark more-or-less as you describe (bit more food, less junk). The Netto shops I linked to are small supermarkets, selling a full range of groceries — fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, bread, cheese, milk, eggs, pasta, rice, toiletries, cleaning products, light bulbs, ... I need hardly describe a grocery store. Toilet paper comes in a pack of 8 or 10 or so. Meat is probably in 250g and 500g packs, with a couple of options at 1kg. There are 6 kinds of toothpaste, 6 types of rice etc. In much of the city, there are multiple shops like this within 5 minutes' walk. I do the majority of my grocery shopping in a shop like this, which is why I'd never consider buying toothpaste online.

rsynnott 2y ago

> They don't exist in the sphere of highly paid professionals, though, because they're eminently practical from a commercial standpoint and sell inexpensive junk food, novelty knives, figurines, cigarettes, and whatever you'd imagine being there just to move off the shelves. That's a different thing. What they're talking about is, effectively, just a very small supermarket, usually run by national chains. I have in walking distance of me about six instances of Tesco; one big one, one medium one, three small ones (single storefront) and one tiny one (convenience store sized). They all have basically the same core stock, at _mostly_ the same prices (I think the really tiny one is a little more expensive).