Living in a walkable city means my weekly shop is a few hours of walking or biking instead of being stuck in traffic, and I’m only mildly tired afterwards since I use a bike with pretty large pannier bags. Since I have no car related costs I can afford more fresh food, a healthier diet, and I can afford to be more choosy about the ethics of what I buy. There’s a twice weekly farmers market about a ten minute walk away, and quiet walks through parks to get to the shops. Living somewhere with car centric infrastructure, as I used to, this lifestyle was far less feasible.

Have your experiences been different with moving to walkable/bikeable cities? Any questions or points to be made? I’m not very up on the theory side of city planning, but my experiences line up with the whole “fuck cars” thing.

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
    44·
    2 years ago

    One of the best things about living in a walkable place is that the concept of a weekly shop is basically dead - access to grocery shopping is available enough that I can go as many or as few times to shop as is warranted.

    Granted, this usually adds up to once a week or less, but yeah. Big benefit.

    This is an important concept to be imparted on those who do not understand the benefits of walkable places - a frequent question is how they can manage to complete their weekly shop without a car, since the car is in their mind needed to transport enough groceries to last the entire week. This is of course necessitated by the fact that their ideal location to shop for groceries is a significant distance away that can only be completed in a practical manner by car.

    With where I live, this is unwarranted because I have access to convenient grocery shopping about 200 meters away by foot, and for ideal pricing I go 1 km away on a bike with storage on the rack. I do not want for variety either, I’ve got multiple speciality shops and 5 different grocery chains within a 1 km radius.

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.worldEnglish
      301·
      2 years ago

      Notjustbikes had a whole episode on how nice it is to decide each day what you want to eat, and just buy it on the way home.

      • usualsuspect191@lemmy.caEnglish
        213·
        2 years ago

        It’s nice to be able to, done get me wrong, but if I could stock up for 6 months I would. Who wants to waste time getting groceries every day?

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          10·
          2 years ago

          it’s not a waste of time lol, are you stuck in car-centric thinking where getting groceries is an hour long affair? for me it takes like 20 minutes to buy stuff of which most of it is just getting to the store, and i don’t even live that close to the store!

          • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            2 years ago

            For me it’s a short drive to the store - would be bikable except for the hill. However grocery shopping is still a chore, and it still takes over an hour out of my life. Yes, I’d try to minimize that, regardless of what transportation I used.

            Over COViD I invested in a chest freezer, and I already had significant storage, so now i can bulk buy more things. Already the only reason I go so often is fresh vegetables: if I could get them to last more than a week, you bet I’d make fewer shopping trips

              • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                2 years ago

                A Costco run every couple months keeps me in stock of dry goods and anything that freezes.

                I may have to goto the grocery weekly for produce, dairy, and bread, but at least don’t have to worry about things, like meat, cereal, etc.

        • v_krishna@lemmy.mlEnglish
          51·
          2 years ago

          I’m personally a big fan of finishing up work, looking through the cupboards, polling the kids and wife, and then walking 5 minutes to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. Gets me out of the house, and since I work from home mostly I find it helps me make a nice mental and physical separation between work and the evening. Fresh baked sourdough from a local baker is an added plus.

          I realize there’s an immense level of privilege I enjoy to be able to do this (namely living in a very metro area, and usually having no commute), but having also lived in Europe and India for periods of my life it’s sad to see there this type of daily shopping is way more normal and commonplace.

    • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I’d love to break up the shop into more frequent, smaller trips and I could, but for my work and parenting duties during the week it’s just easier to do it all in one go.

  • nifty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    2 years ago

    is a few hours of walking

    Hmmm, I dont think people want to walk for hours to complete a grocery shopping trip? Walkable means you’re done in 20mins max, that’s a reasonable standard given what some urban areas already have.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      Fucking hell… I’ll walk all day for fun but I HATE grocery shopping, I’m not walking an hour each way and carrying shit… I’m so lucky to have a little bodega about three minutes away from me, where I can pick up a bunch of dope stuff. But actual grocery shopping? I noticed the community I’m commenting it (I only browse /all/) but I’m driving a few minutes, not hauling all that back over a 30+ minute walk.

      • Grass@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        2 years ago

        I can walk endlessly in dirt trails, even mid to advanced hiking trails while hauling shit in a huge backpack, but the moment I touch pavement I can only manage a couple minutes.

    • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      I double checked the stats. It was more like 1.5 hours total walking over 2 miles, though I was out and about four 3 hours. I wanted to go to a bigger shop outside the city centre and the farmer’s market in town, had to stop at home to empty the cart. If I was less choosy I could do it in 20, but the shop near me is a little depressing.

    • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      111·
      2 years ago

      I dunno man, they literally aren’t sold any other way in this whole country AFAIK. It was the same in the states, the only ones they sell out of plastic are the gross ones with thick skin

      • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 years ago

        Can confirm all the “good” cucumbers in the USA are shrink wrapped, unless you buy at a farmers market. I think it’s a distribution and storage issue and the plastic keeps it fresh longer. My wife and I both hate it, it so hard to get the plastic off, and its no good for the planet.

        • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          I don’t know about all the good ones, but yes, at my grocery, two of the three types of cucumbers sold are wrapped in plastic. I prefer the “normAl” cucumbers in bulk anyway, but occasionally get the English cucumbers or mini cucumbers despite them being 8n plastic

    • Successful_Try543@feddit.deEnglish
      92·
      2 years ago

      Cucumbers stay much longer fresh when tightly wrapped in plastics.

      Edit: No need to downvote. I don’t like that either.

    • Fenrisulfir@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      The cukes in Canada are individually shrink wrapped like this and then 3 off them are bundled together in even more plastic to be sold as a set for $5+

    • Branch_Ranch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      A grocery store I frequent has 4 cobs of corn, lightly trimmed as to see the kernals. And they’re packaged like a steak. 🤦‍♂️

  • norimee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    Ever since I first lived in the city center during nursing school I always make it a priority to live somewhere walkable with public transport. But I do sacrifice apartment space for it.

    Right now I have several supermarkets (including Aldi) and a tram stop in my immediate walking distance. I do all my shopping by foot and I guess I would have to go twice for that amount OP carried home on their bike.

    But I have to say, that I mostly drink tap water (+Tea/Koffee) which is very good quality at my location. If I had to carry crates of water and other beverages it would be much harder. Not everyone has that choice unfortunately.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      That’s one thing I missed when I lived within easy walk of a grocery. I’d generally drive, just for carrying the drinks. I noticed people taking taxis, but that didn’t seem useful …… until many years later when I got hit by the obvious that I could have walked one way and taken a taxi back. This was before cargo bikes

  • King3d@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    Your grocery store sells just loose Pokémon cards? The ones around here have people fist fighting for them.

  • anivia@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    2 years ago

    A few hours for your weekly shopping??? Bruh, you are throwing your life away

    • Lenny@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      I have two baskets and saddlebags on my bike and this shit would easily fit.

    • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      This looks like it can be easily handled by one of those cloth grocery carts, or a couple of reuseable bags and a backpack for the beer/some of the dried goods.

      • g_the_b@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        I lived in NYC for a while and I never got a cart, but I would go to the store pretty much every day and get smaller loads, like one or two bags. But watermelons always harshed my mellow.

      • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        28·
        2 years ago

        Very little meat and dairy and good stuff, no bacon, no Cumberland sausages, no eggs, no burger patties but lots of veg (and nothing for it to go with).

        You’re gonna grow up small and thin on this stuff, just my 2 cents.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          2 years ago

          Yep, it’s fine. I don’t like being the “I’m vegetarian” guy, but there’s nothing wrong with his/her setup.

          I’ve done 200 mile bicycle rides in a single day, relatively tall, very slightly heavier than I like, but doing great sexually, physically, and mentally. No animal products other than dairy and honey.

        • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          31·
          2 years ago

          There’s milk, chocolate milk, eggs, three kinds of fish, two kilos of chicken, two blocks of butter, two kinds of cheese, single cream, and I’m a grown man 3 stone overweight as it is. Honestly wouldn’t mind if my life of lavish excess could turn me into a scrawny little thing.

    • yrmp@lemmy.worlddeleted by creatorEnglish
      41·
      2 years ago

      I’m 5’10”, 200 lbs with 15% body fat and so not a particularly thin guy. I’m primarily a vegetarian/occasional pescatarian. My cholesterol/blood pressure numbers were terrible until I started eating this diet. You don’t need to eat meat (especially sausage) in 2024. Take a supplement for B6 if you’re concerned about it.

      People eat different things. It’s fine and probably better for you than what you seem to think is good.