I live in such a walkable neighborhood and for groceries I use a rather big backpack and I can get groceries for multiple days that way. For the my two-person household it is possible to get enough groceries by going to the supermarket twice a week, so either of us only needs to go once a week. Actually, I do not walk the 1 km to the supermarket but go by bike stead.
I live about 2 miles from the nearest grocery store, and still cook at home at least 70% of the time. One backpack and a bicycle buys enough food for 2 weeks.
Even when I lived in the suburbs, there were grocery stores at that distance. It just never occurred to me that one could bike to the store and buy stuff, I always drove until I tried using the bike. I think the problem is more psychological than reasoned.
That's me! Our closest supermarket is 10-15 minutes away. I have:
- Carried the bags
- Used a backpack
- Used a push-cart (can carry groceries for 5 people for a week)
- Biked (with panniers)
- Biked (with a trailer -- can carry groceries for 10 people for a week)
- Jogged, when I just needed something small on short notice for a cooking project!
It's totally fine, because our neighborhood is very walkable.
I'm fortunate that I live within walking distance of two supermarkets (5 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively). That enables me to walk to either and not worry about using a car (which I don't own) or locking up my bike. Plus the longer walk, with heavier bags, can be a pretty good farmer's walk workout :-)
Depends on the country. I shop for food almost daily (basically buy as I need; store almost nothing). There's a supermarket 100 meters away. Another 150 meters. Last one (with bad opening times) is 200 meters. Next one is then 1 km away or so.
If within walking/cycling distance your habits change quite a bit.
“Weekly” is the keyword. I live in a city where it’s normal to go shopping every 1-2 days, and city bikes have a basket that will fit that amount of groceries. It’s not as inconvenient as it sounds because there is usually a grocery store within walking and definitely one within biking distance.
However it's also not that common for people here to carry lots of groceries at a time, unless you're planning a party. It's a lot more common to just pick up a few things each day: instead of one "big" shopping trip a week, most people make a short 10-minute stop every day or two, often on the way home from work. Partly for convenience, but partly also because that way your food is fresher. If you're shopping in that style, your groceries will fit in a regular bike's cargo basket.
I should have mentioned that I live in europe. By US standards, our cities are extremely walkable. That being said, I have three super markets that I regularly buy from. Two of them are in walkable distance (when carrying few groceries). For the third, cheapest, I have to use either a car or a cargo bike.
I go grocery shopping by bike. Of course it's only for me, but I can easily fit a week's worth of food in a milk crate. I even get heavy stuff like cartons of canned drinks or gallon jugs of milk. I live about two kilometres from two grocery stores in an isolated northern town in Canada, and even though there is zero bike infrastructure here, it's so close that it doesn't really matter if I need to go multiple times per week.
Rain or snow doesn't really matter either; that's what fenders and a jacket are for, and in any case it rarely rains heavily non-stop, but comes in waves, so I can just wait until the rain pauses for a little while.
It's great fun, actually. I hate getting groceries by car now.
This is why it's so nice to have supermarkets at walking or at least short cycling distance from where people live. You don't need to get groceries for a week at a time then.
I'm a single person and I don't go to the grocery store very frequently, and can still easily carry a week's worth of food back to my apartment using a backpack. If you're willing to use a cart (and a lot of people do use them for shopping) you can bring back even more.
I think the problem starts looming when you're trying to buy food for many people once a week. You either need all of those people to come with you to help bring back the food, a motorized vehicle, or a cargo bicycle.
Oh, it's definitely possible to shop weekly, especially with a modern e-bike. I used to do it with a big backpack and a shitty walamrt bike when I lived in the city because the good (read: cheap) grocery store was inconveniently located.
I just take issue with the lunacy that adding an extra errand and the associated overhead, even if it's just a stop on your way home, doesn't have a cost.
Even if supermarket is in walking distance, the limiting factor is ability to take all the purchase with me. Using a car i could fill half the car with the purchase, so i do not need to visit it again for several weeks.
In college I didn't have a car so I walked/biked/bussed everywhere. Going to the market was still a hassle and I only had to buy for 1 person. I still had to go often because there was only so much I could bring home in one shot. Now, when I go to the market, I'm buying at least a week's worth of groceries for a family of five. I would need a pretty big bike trailer to get all those goods home. And since it would take quite a bit longer, I'd also probably need to add something to handle the frozen/refrigerated things. So, I bike for leisure and not for utility.
People don't carry around 35kg of groceries each time they go to the local supermarket. They buy a tiny bit of what they need each day, walking back from home/school, since it takes so little time and often it's on the way, anyway.
Time is spent on going to a grocery store in a car too. That's also a substantial cost. With proper urban planning, it wouldn't be a PITA to shop for grocery since it will be close to you.
But it's not like you can't shop weekly with a bike too. Cargo bikes can carry more grocery than usual. Coupled with electric assist, it shouldn't be too bad.
In many European cities, you can just walk to a grocery store a few blocks away, and just go every day or two, picking up a few items each time.
You only need one bag, so it’s not a burden at all. Worst case, it’s incredibly easy to add a basket to a bike (or mobility scooter), so you can put your day’s groceries in there.
And as an added benefit of density, grocery stores are more efficient. There is a “general” one with all of the basics — fruit and veggies, cereal, meat, pasta, basic sauces, breads, convenience foods. Those are everywhere. Then if you go a little further, you’ll find specialty stores with “asian foods” or others, which you may not use as often but can get some rarer things there.
I used to live 20 minutes walk from the closest non-convenience store.
I carried a medium-sized rucksack and went shopping more regularly.
Obviously not quite as easy for an old age pensioner or people that might also have issues walking with a heavy bag, but the vast majority of people do not fall into that category.
Nowadays I get my big shopping delivered, but still sometimes walk (to the now closer shop) with rucksack. For the further afield discount alcohol shop I often bike there, again with rucksack and/or side bags.
I myself am doing fine with one or two backpacks a week (on the way home by bike). 2-3km distance to supermarket
When I was living 200m away from a supermarket, I used to buy spontaneously when I wanted to cook something
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