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.

  • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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    3 hours ago

    500 meters. If the store were at 3km I’d bike there, not walk. I feel like 500m is still an okay walking distance, but at some point I regularly went to a store 800m away and I already preferred to bike there. Walking 3km is definitely a bit of a time investment

  • KarfiolosHus@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 hours ago

    Outskirts of Budapest, closest supermarket is bit more than 1.5 km, so I did my daily shopping when I walked the dog. I would guess 45 min round trip.

  • OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    In Norway. Technically in a city, but it’s very rural. About 30 minutes of walking with a descent of ~150 meters. Carrying groceries back up that hill is a big test of stamina, so we very rarely do it. We mostly drive to the store.

    Your friend is full of shit. 3km is a very long distance for walking to get groceries, and I can imagine that you have to deprioritize heavier groceries all the time due to that distance. I’d recommend getting a bike or electic scooter or something to cover that distance. Basically no one in Norway would have 3km to their nearest store with walking as their only option.

  • hansolo@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    I have a small shop with basics and a seasonal farm stand about 400 meters from me and I walk that for anything I need from there, or another larger but still small shop another 300m past the first one. But selection is limited.

    There’s a gross supermarket about 2km away, and I wouldn’t object to walking that, but I don’t think I ever have. In the same amount of time I could drive 4km to the good supermarket or large green market and get better products. I regularly go for 5-7km runs, often past the gross supermarket, so it’s more so that if I need something from a supermarket, I would rather do a full shopping trip, or stop at the store or market on the way home from work.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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    2 hours ago

    The closest one to me is about 1km, I walk there if I don’t have to get too much stuff. 3km? I don’t know. In nice weather maybe, if I’m not in a hurry.

  • glorkon@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    I live in Berlin. I can go shopping for groceries, head back home, cook a meal using those groceries and eat within one hour of home office lunch break.

  • maks@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    People in this thread seems to live near big cities, which isn’t really representative of the whole european population.

    I live in rural france, the closest grocery store since I was born is 20km away (20min drive, no bus), and I moved 3 times - still about 20km.

    Lots of people I know would love a store to be 3km away

    • tired_n_bored@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      My girlfriend lives in a rural area. When we go groceries we consider it an outdoor activity. It’s like 4km away from her house

  • randombullet@programming.dev
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    3 hours ago

    My day to day shopping is 600-800m away.

    My specialty store is 1.1km.

    3km is a bit too far for me.

    The most I’ve ever willing walked for groceries is 1.5km

  • Noobnarski@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    The closest grocery store/supermarket is around 1km away from my house and a few others are just slightly further away. I could walk there, but I have better ways to use my time, so I just go with my bike.

    The pannier bags also enable me to buy heavy stuff without having to lift it the whole way.

  • Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz
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    3 hours ago

    My day to day walking to grocery stores is something like one kilometer. Bus goes every ten or fifteen minutes near my home. I don’t like biking that’s why I decided to walk. Every now and then I walk to the city, which is 5 km from my home, I don’t think it’s too far, but if I go to shopping there I usually come back with a bus.

  • Luc@lemmy.world
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    56 minutes ago

    Used to be 5km where I grew up in the Netherlands, nowadays living in Germany it’s 1km but uphill (don’t have those in NL!). In either case I don’t want to walk it and there’s not a chance I would if it’s 30 degrees out: that temperature means it’s probably in a month of the year where I burn within 10-20 minutes. I’d have to put on sunscreen for going to the store! They better have a sandy beach aisle