Europeans, how far do you walk for groceries?
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
3km is kinda far, even with a bicycle, I have a small shop down the stairs and a medium supermarket at 5 min walk
-
What's a hypermarket?
Well a hypermarket is to a supermarket what a supermarket is to a small grocery store.
So just a very large supermarket that families would usually use for "the big shop". I assume the equivalent is one of those markets you need a card to enter in the US, idk.
Except you don't need a membership (but usually there's good benefits if you have one) and you it's not all family size products.
Oh my bad, actually the definition is just supermarket+department store, basically.
-
Obligatory "I'm not European" but have quite a few online friends from euro land that I yak with regularly.
Remember their grocery shopping habits are (typically) much different than Americans. Where US shoppers may go once every week or two, and make large bulk purchases to load into their car, it's more common there to stop by a market every day or two on the way home from work or another errand, just to get a single light bag that is enough for the next couple meals. "Carrying home groceries" for a km or two is less of a chore if it's not 25kg of groceries at a time.
I get the feeling that many Americans are under the illusion that most Europeans live in big cities like Paris or Amsterdam. And while it may be true that people in those cities have different shopping habits compared to Americans in similarly sized cities, that doesn’t reflect the reality for all - or even most - Europeans. For me and most of my friends, going to the supermarket once or twice a week by car has always been the norm.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
Europeans
Huge diversity.
I have 1km and there are 3 different supermarkets, and I go there either by car or by bicycle.
Friends who live in Sweden have 10km to the nearest supermarket and then 50 km to the next one.
-
Well a hypermarket is to a supermarket what a supermarket is to a small grocery store.
So just a very large supermarket that families would usually use for "the big shop". I assume the equivalent is one of those markets you need a card to enter in the US, idk.
Except you don't need a membership (but usually there's good benefits if you have one) and you it's not all family size products.
Oh my bad, actually the definition is just supermarket+department store, basically.
Oh geeze, we don't make a distinction between a supermarket and a grocery store either, lol. Most 'grocery stores' in the US are apparently supermarkets because they sell stuff like dog food and laundry detergent? I don't think we have any stores that do just produce, at least not in the few states I've lived in.
Going off the wiki link, it looks like I have a hypermarket ~25km away.
-
It’s your friend’s claim I’m criticizing - not yours.
Don't mind me, I'm just looking for stuff to shove in his face later, because I'm kinda irritated by his claim too, lol.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
I don't live in Europe anymore, but it was about 2.5km one way. There was a closer one, but from a chain I absolutely hated, so there I'd only pick up heavy or bulky stuff, like drinks, toilet paper etc.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
If I walked 3km in any direction I would pass probably 8-10 grocery stores on the way. But I live in the middle of a small European city. I walk probably 300meters to the nearest one though.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
I’m in the US (and in FL no less so it’s routinely 30-38C/80-100F). I moved to my specific house, among other reasons, because it’s about 250M/a quarter mile from a grocery store. I walk there 2x/week and carry back on average about 10kg/20-25 lbs of groceries. Lots of others in my neighborhood do the same, but most of Florida is not built for walking which is incredibly disappointing.
-
Oh geeze, we don't make a distinction between a supermarket and a grocery store either, lol. Most 'grocery stores' in the US are apparently supermarkets because they sell stuff like dog food and laundry detergent? I don't think we have any stores that do just produce, at least not in the few states I've lived in.
Going off the wiki link, it looks like I have a hypermarket ~25km away.
Well no, not just produce. You'll find a section for general shit even in the smaller stores. Like tape, glue, underwear (at least for women, usually really thin cotton ones and I'm furious they don't sell the same for men, but I've still used them very comfortable). You can find basic household items like cleaning stuff and diapers and everything you need. but like the selection of tapes or glues won't be anything akin to a proper department store or a hardware store.
You can definitely find dog food and laundry detergent in all stores. And I mean it, I've worked in a bunch basically Kwik-E-Mart style shops and they all had those as well
But hypermarkets will be like almost on the level of specialised hardware stores in their selection of actually usable things. And they'll have bikes and whatnot.
Basically the sizes go with the square footage of the market in Finland at least, I don't think it's to due with what is being sold. And at one point only smaller stores were permitted 247 opening hours or sunday opening hours, whereas larger stores would only be open from 7-21 or something. Nowdays they're actually open 247 as well.
But they can only sell alcohol from 09 to 21
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]My nearest grocery store is 0.4km away point to point on gmaps, it's an 8 min walk in one direction, entirely via pedestrian only areas with no road crossings on flat road. I consider this to actually be a bit far, as in the previous city I lived in I had a convenience store 3 min walk away.
I think your friend is messing with you.
-
I’m in the US (and in FL no less so it’s routinely 30-38C/80-100F). I moved to my specific house, among other reasons, because it’s about 250M/a quarter mile from a grocery store. I walk there 2x/week and carry back on average about 10kg/20-25 lbs of groceries. Lots of others in my neighborhood do the same, but most of Florida is not built for walking which is incredibly disappointing.
Yeah, the walking infrastructure around here is incredibly weird. Like, my town converted an old rail right-of-way to a gravel trail, which is great, but... There's this warehouse that used to connect to the rail line, so now the trail goes right through the middle of their parking lot/ shipping lanes. You have to cross a truck route to get to it from the residential area anyways, so it doesn't get a lot of use.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
500m to the cheap one and 750m to the one with the bigger selection. I walk or bike there. 3km would be too much for me i think. I would take the bus or train as i don’t have a car either, but doesn’t sound like fun.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
One more opinion: 3km is definitely too far for groceries, that's driving distance. It's half an hour walking each way, the return loaded with bags? Forget about it.
I live on the edge of a small-ish town and it takes me 15 min to the nearest supermarket, and that's quite a lot, everyone on this streets bikes there, in about 5 min. From there towards the center you don't need to walk more than 5 min to get groceries.
I'd say having to walk more than a 10 minutes for groceries already affects the apartment value.
-
Well no, not just produce. You'll find a section for general shit even in the smaller stores. Like tape, glue, underwear (at least for women, usually really thin cotton ones and I'm furious they don't sell the same for men, but I've still used them very comfortable). You can find basic household items like cleaning stuff and diapers and everything you need. but like the selection of tapes or glues won't be anything akin to a proper department store or a hardware store.
You can definitely find dog food and laundry detergent in all stores. And I mean it, I've worked in a bunch basically Kwik-E-Mart style shops and they all had those as well
But hypermarkets will be like almost on the level of specialised hardware stores in their selection of actually usable things. And they'll have bikes and whatnot.
Basically the sizes go with the square footage of the market in Finland at least, I don't think it's to due with what is being sold. And at one point only smaller stores were permitted 247 opening hours or sunday opening hours, whereas larger stores would only be open from 7-21 or something. Nowdays they're actually open 247 as well.
But they can only sell alcohol from 09 to 21
Yeah, the store I'm thinking is a hypermarket sells groceries, but also clothing, toys, furniture, garden plants, tools, etc. We still call it a grocery store, lol.
My town's store doesn't even have its own bakery department or meat counter, but the bigger one next town over away has a bank branch and a starbucks inside, but doesn't sell the range of the big one mentioned above.
Is that close to the grocery > supermarket > hypermarket scale?
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
I live in a very small town, the closest one is 300m, it's a rather small grocery store good enough for daily stuff. Once a week or two I take the car to a bigger store 10km away for stuff that I can't find in the small store or is cheaper there.
I draw the line of the unladen (not for leisure) walking distance at 25 minutes. That can be reevaluated in case of necessity.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
Not european but 2km to the nearest grocery store with fewer selection, 3.8km to the nearest town with better selection. The caveat here is i moved into a rather new residential area and it's in the middle of nowhere. Before this the grocery store is 3min walk, and the furthest part of the residential area is still 1km away from the nearest grocery store.
I wouldn't walk 3km though, that is still 30min to 40min walk one way. Cycling is better.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
As a european, it takes me 8 minutes to walk to a supermarket, though i use a bicycle
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
The nearest to me is super run down and gross with people doing drugs in the parking lot, and its 2.7km from me. Instead I end up going to a nice one in a different part of town just over 9km away. Obviously driving is the only option for either.
-
I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I'm just being lazy.
I don't have a car, I don't have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
About a 4 minute walk!
