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I live in a walkable quarter and I can reach three full supermarkets and 2 specialty supermarkets within 5 minutes. Doesn't matter whether I need to stock up on

I live in a walkable quarter and I can reach three full supermarkets and 2 specialty supermarkets within 5 minutes. Doesn't matter whether I need to stock up on milk, vegetables or hand peeled shrimp in garlic sauce, I can get it. Same with public schools (5 within a 2 mile radius), childcare (3), hospitals (2) and the park.

card_zero 3mo ago
I don't get the argument either. Perhaps if you can't walk very far? If I put half an hour into walking I can easily buy all the essentials, such as a crash cymbal, oil of violets, steel nibs for my dip pen, a CD player, and a teapot.
- Insanity 3mo ago
  I live in a metropolitan area and can walk to many stores within a 30 minute radius. (First supermarket is less than 5 minutes away). But there is the added complication of weight. I can’t buy food for a week without driving there. Nor can I go and buy a TV by just walking to the hardware store.
  - oblio 3mo ago
    It's an infrastructure thing. With the right regular/cargo bike or even better, an ebike/cargo ebike, 30-40kg of groceries per run is super doable. > Nor can I go and buy a TV by just walking to the hardware store. Do you buy a TV more than once every 5-10 years? You can rent a small van or whatever.
    - Insanity 3mo ago
      You definitely need infrastructure for that. Biking infrastructure in North American cities is.. not great. Definitely viable in some of the EU ones though.
  - mike50 3mo ago
    Personally owned folding shopping carts exist.
    - cogman10 3mo ago
      For those to be effective, you do need good walking infrastructure. I'd grab one of those except for the fact that I don't have a sidewalk connecting me to the grocery store. Totes end up working better for me as a result.
    - Insanity 3mo ago
      Used to do this in Belgium. Still less convenient than driving, and kinda annoying to use during a Canadian winter. And again, more limited space. I commute by walking (1h per day) and typically avoid the car when possible, but for groceries there’s just no way I’d go back to walking to and fro.
  - willlma 3mo ago
    30 minutes is on the longer side, but I think part of the point of walkable grocery runs is that you don't buy a week's worth of food like you do in a car. When I lived in Paris, I'd happily pop out to buy whatever I needed for a single meal. I had so many grocery stores within a 5-minute walk. Now that I'm in SF, I buy for the week (on my bike with panier bags) because the grocery stores I like are far from my home.
throw1234567891 3mo ago
As you have to carry everything, how often do you go shopping?
- Broken_Hippo 3mo ago
  not who you were asking, but I walk to the store and carry my groceries home. Usually, twice a week or something. It's great. 10 minute walk each way, approximately, and never more than I can easily carry. I buy for two people. I'd go more often if I shopped for more. I do occasionally visit other stores - once or twice a month - because they have different selection of goods. To be fair, I'm still carrying the stuff because I walk or use a bus for most of my transportation needs. It means my fridge can be smaller because I don't need to keep as much in there. It means it is really easy to shop whatever is on sale - I have two grocery stores near me. I rarely have vegetables that go bad because I can just buy the stuff I need. I can just stop on the way home from work if I'm working the day shift. I did this for a while when I lived in the states, too, in a small town. I had a similar experience, but it was far less convenient and really only doable because I was in such a small town and lived alone.
  - frrlpp 3mo ago
    You clearly have no family
    - DeluluDon 3mo ago
      [dead]
    - s1artibartfast 3mo ago
      yeah, I think people come at this from very different life expectations. It is hard to take a toddler, a weeks groceries, and 50lb bag of dog food on a bike or bus. Living without a car is easily possible, lots of parts of europe do it. They do it by living in small aparments, consuming less with more staples
    - tstenner 3mo ago
      I have a family of four and we manage just fine. The kids aren't toddlers any more (which only means that we can't put everything in the bottom layer of the stroller), but when they come to the age where they eat a week's shopping in a single sitting they will be old enough to take over a few shopping trips on their own.
jstanley 3mo ago
Ok but that doesn't come close to the variety of products you can buy online.
- hx8 3mo ago
  I think this is the point I was trying to make, but didn't make as clearly as I wanted. Sure I could buy two or three different types of keyboards within walking distance, but none of them used my favorite mechanical switches. I was constantly facing choices where I would either need to travel by vehicle to a speciality store (train, bus or car), or I would order the item in. Judging by the flow of packages into my multi-residential building others were facing the same choice.
  - no-name-here 3mo ago
    > none of them used my favorite mechanical switches One of the major points(/claims?) of the OP article is that fewer choices is better, pointing to how Costco has just 4k SKUs (paragraphs 4, 5, 6, and some within later paragraphs). <shrug>
- danny_codes 3mo ago
  Sure, but 98% of what you buy is is either in the set of SKUs near you or substitutable for them. Near you only applies if you live among actual density of course.
  - tstenner 3mo ago
    Ironically I found my current keyboard (a quite nice Cherry) in a store near me. For specialty parts where it doesn't make sense to have to them sitting around in stores everywhere online shopping is still allowed, but I only need to order something every few weeks
SkiFire13 3mo ago
> Doesn't matter whether I need to stock up on milk, vegetables or hand peeled shrimp in garlic sauce I don't even consider those when shopping online.

card_zero 3mo ago

I don't get the argument either. Perhaps if you can't walk very far? If I put half an hour into walking I can easily buy all the essentials, such as a crash cymbal, oil of violets, steel nibs for my dip pen, a CD player, and a teapot.

Insanity 3mo ago
I live in a metropolitan area and can walk to many stores within a 30 minute radius. (First supermarket is less than 5 minutes away). But there is the added complication of weight. I can’t buy food for a week without driving there. Nor can I go and buy a TV by just walking to the hardware store.
- oblio 3mo ago
  It's an infrastructure thing. With the right regular/cargo bike or even better, an ebike/cargo ebike, 30-40kg of groceries per run is super doable. > Nor can I go and buy a TV by just walking to the hardware store. Do you buy a TV more than once every 5-10 years? You can rent a small van or whatever.
  - Insanity 3mo ago
    You definitely need infrastructure for that. Biking infrastructure in North American cities is.. not great. Definitely viable in some of the EU ones though.
- mike50 3mo ago
  Personally owned folding shopping carts exist.
  - cogman10 3mo ago
    For those to be effective, you do need good walking infrastructure. I'd grab one of those except for the fact that I don't have a sidewalk connecting me to the grocery store. Totes end up working better for me as a result.
  - Insanity 3mo ago
    Used to do this in Belgium. Still less convenient than driving, and kinda annoying to use during a Canadian winter. And again, more limited space. I commute by walking (1h per day) and typically avoid the car when possible, but for groceries there’s just no way I’d go back to walking to and fro.
- willlma 3mo ago
  30 minutes is on the longer side, but I think part of the point of walkable grocery runs is that you don't buy a week's worth of food like you do in a car. When I lived in Paris, I'd happily pop out to buy whatever I needed for a single meal. I had so many grocery stores within a 5-minute walk. Now that I'm in SF, I buy for the week (on my bike with panier bags) because the grocery stores I like are far from my home.

throw1234567891 3mo ago

As you have to carry everything, how often do you go shopping?

Broken_Hippo 3mo ago
not who you were asking, but I walk to the store and carry my groceries home. Usually, twice a week or something. It's great. 10 minute walk each way, approximately, and never more than I can easily carry. I buy for two people. I'd go more often if I shopped for more. I do occasionally visit other stores - once or twice a month - because they have different selection of goods. To be fair, I'm still carrying the stuff because I walk or use a bus for most of my transportation needs. It means my fridge can be smaller because I don't need to keep as much in there. It means it is really easy to shop whatever is on sale - I have two grocery stores near me. I rarely have vegetables that go bad because I can just buy the stuff I need. I can just stop on the way home from work if I'm working the day shift. I did this for a while when I lived in the states, too, in a small town. I had a similar experience, but it was far less convenient and really only doable because I was in such a small town and lived alone.
- frrlpp 3mo ago
  You clearly have no family
  - DeluluDon 3mo ago
    [dead]
  - s1artibartfast 3mo ago
    yeah, I think people come at this from very different life expectations. It is hard to take a toddler, a weeks groceries, and 50lb bag of dog food on a bike or bus. Living without a car is easily possible, lots of parts of europe do it. They do it by living in small aparments, consuming less with more staples
  - tstenner 3mo ago
    I have a family of four and we manage just fine. The kids aren't toddlers any more (which only means that we can't put everything in the bottom layer of the stroller), but when they come to the age where they eat a week's shopping in a single sitting they will be old enough to take over a few shopping trips on their own.

jstanley 3mo ago

Ok but that doesn't come close to the variety of products you can buy online.

hx8 3mo ago
I think this is the point I was trying to make, but didn't make as clearly as I wanted. Sure I could buy two or three different types of keyboards within walking distance, but none of them used my favorite mechanical switches. I was constantly facing choices where I would either need to travel by vehicle to a speciality store (train, bus or car), or I would order the item in. Judging by the flow of packages into my multi-residential building others were facing the same choice.
- no-name-here 3mo ago
  > none of them used my favorite mechanical switches One of the major points(/claims?) of the OP article is that fewer choices is better, pointing to how Costco has just 4k SKUs (paragraphs 4, 5, 6, and some within later paragraphs). <shrug>
danny_codes 3mo ago
Sure, but 98% of what you buy is is either in the set of SKUs near you or substitutable for them. Near you only applies if you live among actual density of course.
- tstenner 3mo ago
  Ironically I found my current keyboard (a quite nice Cherry) in a store near me. For specialty parts where it doesn't make sense to have to them sitting around in stores everywhere online shopping is still allowed, but I only need to order something every few weeks

SkiFire13 3mo ago

> Doesn't matter whether I need to stock up on milk, vegetables or hand peeled shrimp in garlic sauce I don't even consider those when shopping online.