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.
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NYC. I walk a round trip of 3k for groceries twice a week. Not unusual to walk 5k per day.
Aussie, but the strip with a butcher, grocer and IGA is about 60m away, if i want more supermarkety goods i’ll hop on my pushbike or walk the 1.4km to Europa
I have shop few meters away from my home, but I only go there, when I forgot to buy something or just quickly need snacks for a movie or it’s bad weather, but usually I just buy everything from other grocery store which is 2 km away, but I like their food selection more and they got cheaper prices. Sometimes I also walk to big supermarket which is 4 km away.
3 km doesn’t seem much for me or most of my friends,some of them even own a car and still walk 2-4 km to the grocery shop, instead of driving, but some people I know, would rather drive a car or take a bus.
I’m American. I regularly walk to the shop that’s 1.75 km, won’t drive it because it’s too close.
The closest Real Grocery is 2.5km, that I take electric bike. Same for the Whole Foods that’s much farther (5.5km) but that I consider an adventure ride and certainly not a walk. The groceries would melt by the time I got home if I walked.
All of these my husband drives to, and I think that’s more typical. I have hangups about driving short distances.
900m. I live at the edge of town…
My closest supermarket is 400m away, and the next supermarket over is 1.1km. I walk there daily, sometimes multiple times a day. 3km is quite far and I would not consider that walking distance.
It’s certainly possible to walk that distance once every (couple of) months, if I did not have my bike available for whatever reason? But I would consider regularly walking 40 minutes one way every other day to be far too much. That distance is cycling distance, not walking distance.
On a side-note. Did you just say that the bus arrives only once every four hours? My lord… It might as well basically not exist at that point.
I lived in NYC and now in Canada. Your distances seem about accurate with my limits, though NYers are infamous for walking everywhere, including up and down 6 flights of stairs. It’s certainly not the norm in the US.
Did you just say that the bus arrives only once every four hours? My lord… It might as well basically not exist at that point.
This is a great time to introduce you to the American public transit system.
I recently moved somewhere a little further from the shops. I can take the bus part of the way but still need to walk around 1km each way, so I’ve invested in a Clax trolley to carry my groceries.
If I was in your situation, I would buy a light, foldable cart, take the bus to the shops, and walk home.
I’ve lived in different places here, currently I have a couple of options in a 400m radius, in my previous house I used to have two options in a 100m radius. Before that I lived in another country and had a small market at around 600m and the nearest supermarket was at 1.5km, I almost never went to the big one and instead had them deliver to my house, but it wasn’t a chore going there, it was just boring and a waste of time when I could just order online.
A few years back I used to live in a small city and my options were 1km for a small market or 3km for a big one, you sort of get used to going the 3km to the big one when needed, but it’s not fun, and I would consistently put out going to the big one until it was absolutely necessary. I believe 3km is bike distance, sure you can walk that much, it’s not that far away, but it takes a long time and is exhausting carrying lots of groceries in summer for that long.
All of that being said, I was not born in Europe, so locals might have different opinions, although I think everyone I’ve talked to thinks that above 1km it becomes bike/scooter distance for routine things (you don’t need a bike if you’re going to the cinema at 1km, but grocery or other routine stuff it’s worth the investment just on the time you’ll save)
That’s cycling distance. A nice bike ride to pickup shopping.
210m for the medium sized store, 650 for the farther store. I wouldn’t walk more than that, its either car or bus for bigger ones.
About 200 meters, but I usually take the bike down to the Lidl 1 km away.
Where I last lived I had 200 meters to a small shop and 3.5 km to the local Lidl, which was fine but not ideal.
Getting a bike with a rack might be a good idea for your grocery runs. 3 km is less than 10 minutes on a bike.
Get the basil crates, 70l and clip in and out so you can just load and go
80 meters lol. I’ve lived in cities, where it’s always been less than 700 meters.
About 500m or, if I want to go to a larger supermarket, about 2km.
Netherlands, Rotterdam. 4 supermarkets within walking distance. 1 less than 10 minutes, 3 less than 5.
I bike (more carrying capacity) about 9km each direction. (Belgium to Germany, funnily enough.) That being said, not wanting to do so under the burning sun is absolutely valid.
