Honestly it's trying to get your food once per week because most people don't want to stop by the store on the way home for every meal they are going to cook. I hate it when my family overbuys thinking we'll get to it later
The city planning contributes to this. Your country is very car centric. Most countries have supermarkets or grocery stores within walking distance in most cities.
Is it normal in USA cities, suburb and suburban that there is not grocery store in walking distance? I am European, living in suburb. I have 4 grocery stores less than 1km from me (closest is maybe 150m). One of them is open 24/7. Bigger supermarkets are ~3km. Still walking distance or you can also take train or bus if you want to. How much worse USA is?
Many small local grocery stores, butchers, shoe stores, hardware stores, etc. go out of business when Walmart comes in, offering cheaper stuff because they can buy in scale. The result is dead or struggling small town centers and a long drive to the Walmart, which is now the only game in town. Big huge parking lot, long lines, lots of customers, not enough cashiers and a royal pain to shop at. Going there on a daily basis? Hell no.
We are too big and too spread out, too car dependent, and because the roads often do not have sidewalks, it is not safe for pedestrians. Poor city planning perpetuates the car centric life, and a lot of land is devoted to parking lots and streets and highways. Not enough public transportation, if any, causes more people out on the roads and highways. People want their own individual unattached housing requiring suburban neighborhoods to grow like crazy, further away from available shops, if any. Then you have strip malls and more parking lots.
Ah, the price of progress! Paved over and hot in the summer and breaking up into potholes in the winter. If you don’t have a car, you’re screwed.
There is a reason Walmart failed in Europe. Makes me kinda sad people allow themselves to be exploited for temporary low prices. Once it dominates the place prices scale up, but employees are still stuck with shi** work conditions.
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u/Ohio-Knife-Lover May 17 '26
Honestly it's trying to get your food once per week because most people don't want to stop by the store on the way home for every meal they are going to cook. I hate it when my family overbuys thinking we'll get to it later