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How far to the grocery store?

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How far to the grocery store?

Old 06-06-14, 09:08 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Machka
Now, one grocery store is 2.2 km away and the others (in a shopping centre with K-Mart, Big W, etc) are 2.6 km away. We drive. We could probably cycle to the one that is 2.2 km away and come back with groceries. I have walked that a few times. But the one that is 2.6 km away involves too much climbing for my liking at this point, especially with groceries. I have walked there and back once.
Rowan tells me we've actually got a small grocery store about 300 metres from where we live. Obviously I'm paying attention.

When he mentioned it, I did remember, but I've never been there. It's not a direction we usually walk or cycle.
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Old 06-06-14, 09:44 AM
  #27  
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10 minute walk to an Albertsons that I like to shop at. I go there frequently with a backpack. We really like living so close to the grocery store. We often will walk there to just get one thing, just for the walk.
A Safeway is 1/2 mile away, walkable, but I seldom shop there.
They keep talking about putting a City Market (Kroger) in a few blocks from my place. I'd got there if they did.
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Old 06-06-14, 09:52 AM
  #28  
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Roughly 2 miles or a shade less to a HyVee or a Wally World from my house. The HyVee is a lot less traffic to get there, flatter route, and I like it better. I think you could ride 3-4 miles or so the other way and be at an Aldi.

I can get to the HyVee almost 100% through neighborhood side streets instead of main roads. Hence, my daughter likes to ride there behind me, with the grocery cargo trailer behind her.

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Old 06-06-14, 04:50 PM
  #29  
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Most of our food comes from a weekly farmers market about 3.5 miles away. We go there by bus, mainly because it's located at the top of a large, steep hill. After eating organic fruits and vegetables straight from the farms, the stuff you buy in stores just doesn't compare. We occasionally buy meat and fish at the farmers market too, but it's expensive enough that we can't afford very much of it. (The fish is wild caught, so they aren't exactly farmers.)

For other food items, we have Middle Eastern, Asian, and 3 general groceries (Mollie Stone's, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's) all within a mile of home. Mollie Stone's is 3 blocks away and there is a drug store next door to it. There is another, smaller farmers market about 1.3 miles away, which we sometimes visit. What's funny is that we live in suburbia.
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Old 06-21-14, 09:39 PM
  #30  
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..

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Old 06-21-14, 10:41 PM
  #31  
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I generally visit a Stop & Shop half a mile away or a Best Market a mile away (I like their deli, seafood, and produce depts over Stop & Shop). I've brought home as much as 60 pounds of groceries in my panniers!
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Old 06-21-14, 10:54 PM
  #32  
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1 mile to albertsons.
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Old 06-21-14, 11:31 PM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Roody
Did anybody notice that everybody here says how many miles (or kilometers) they are from the store? OTOH, motorists will say "I live 10 minutes from Kroger" but they have no idea how many miles that actually is.

What does this mean?
It means that the time required to do an errand is more important than the exact distance. No mystery there. It's more important to me that the grocery store is 15 minutes away rather than it is 1.25 miles away.
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Old 06-21-14, 11:46 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by Roody
Did anybody notice that everybody here says how many miles (or kilometers) they are from the store? OTOH, motorists will say "I live 10 minutes from Kroger" but they have no idea how many miles that actually is.

What does this mean?
It depends on the expected trip method. I think in the midwest driving is most common, so people assume you're going to drive. In NYC, this may not be the case, so people will often tell you how many stops on the subway. On this board, bicycling is expected.
Driving times are more uniform for different drivers, so that someplace is a half hour drive can be accurate for other drivers. However, a 15 minute drive can be 3 miles at rushhour or 15+ miles on the interstate.

By bicycle, 3 miles across town is very different from 15 miles on the interstate, but the general distance lets each bicyclist estimate the tiem & effort to get there.


Locally, I have 3 supermarkets 2-3 miles away, with a Whole Foods that's about 6 miles. When I worked out of state, one Kroger was about 1½ miles, with a new one 3-4 miles away. (Distance - I usually bicycled.)

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Old 06-22-14, 09:45 AM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by bbeasley
For those of you who use a bike for groceries, how far one way?
A little less than 2 miles currently. Two massive groceries right across the street from each other. Add an extra mile to Whole Paycheck (Foods).

Just another idea for doing groceries car-free: Years ago I lived about a 40 minute walk from a major grocery chain store. Once a month I would make a MAJOR grocery run - so I would walk to the grocery and catch a taxi home with the giant load which the taxi driver would always help me carry up one flight of stairs to my apartment. After that I would make weekly bicycle trips to the same grocery, or a Whole Foods that was about 5 miles away. Then a month or so later - another walk/taxi trip to/from the nearby grocery. This system worked great for several years until I moved across town to my current situation.
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Old 06-23-14, 07:24 PM
  #36  
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I live about 3 miles from a major grocery store and various specialty food shops in town. I also live about 2-3 miles to 3 farms each with a retail store on site. My favorite farmer's market is about 9 miles away, in Trenton. All of these are a great excuse for a bike excursion. Which one I do depends on how much time I have (and what's in the fridge).

Only a couple of years ago, I thought a hilly 3-mile ride to the grocery store was a bit excessive. However, a while back a switch went off, and I began to think of these trips as an adventure destination! This change in thinking occurred about the same time as I changed out the chainring on my bike to give me a few more lower gears. :-)
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Old 06-23-14, 07:29 PM
  #37  
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1.7 miles.
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Old 06-23-14, 08:40 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by JoeyBike
A little less than 2 miles currently. Two massive groceries right across the street from each other. Add an extra mile to Whole Paycheck (Foods).

Just another idea for doing groceries car-free: Years ago I lived about a 40 minute walk from a major grocery chain store. Once a month I would make a MAJOR grocery run - so I would walk to the grocery and catch a taxi home with the giant load which the taxi driver would always help me carry up one flight of stairs to my apartment. After that I would make weekly bicycle trips to the same grocery, or a Whole Foods that was about 5 miles away. Then a month or so later - another walk/taxi trip to/from the nearby grocery. This system worked great for several years until I moved across town to my current situation.
This system is great if you live some distance from the grocery store. However, being only about half a mile, I love to pop down and get something fresh every couple of days. Occasionally I run into one of the neighbors or someone I worked with a while ago. I guess that's the social aspect of it.
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Old 06-24-14, 12:56 AM
  #39  
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There's a bodega half a block from me, and another, more upscale one a block and a half away. There are probably at least half a dozen delis or greengrocers within a three block radius. The supermarket is less than 10 blocks away, not counting the overpriced yuppie-mart that's a couple of blocks closer. Chinatown is fifteen or twenty minute away on foot, where you'll find the best and cheapest fruit and produce, not to mention fish. It's a pain to bike there though. Yes, I'm a New Yorker.

In NYC, this may not be the case, so people will often tell you how many stops on the subway.
Shorter distances are measured in blocks, though you might have to specify uptown vs. crosstown, as crosstown blocks are much longer. We measure distance by time too. "How far do you live?" "Oh, about 45 minute by train." "That's a schlep."
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Old 06-25-14, 08:58 PM
  #40  
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well..2 miles to kroger (1.5 miles via bikepath), 1.5 miles to Aldi (My wife and I are finding more natural/organic items every time we go!) and 2 miles to Wal-mart (uphill). there is a summer farmers market in my medium town(22k) (a true small town is a few thousand in my op).
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Old 06-29-14, 01:47 PM
  #41  
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I shop weekly at the farmers market 2.5 miles from home. I also go to walmart 1/2 mile away.
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Old 07-08-14, 09:11 AM
  #42  
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There's one right downstairs on the ground floor. But the ones i frequent the most are 2 minutes ride away.
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Old 07-09-14, 11:44 AM
  #43  
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Walmart is 4-miles. A smaller grocery store is only 2.5-miles. And then a really small store is only 1-mile. But they are soon going to open up a new Walmart 1-mile away.
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Old 07-09-14, 12:16 PM
  #44  
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As I've posted before, my closest grocery store and general merchandise store (Big Lots/Dollar General) is a little over 10 miles away. About 15 miles to a locally owned but questionable quality of foods grocery store. Within walking distance of the grocery store (.5 mile tops) on Wednesdays and Saturdays is a farmer's market. It's about 30 miles to the nearest Walmart, but the only thing we tend to get from there is dog food these days, so that trip is done by car every 2 months give-or-take.
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Old 08-23-14, 07:52 AM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by Machka
When I was car free, my grocery store was 1 km away. I walked. However, every few months I went to a larger grocery store further away and used a rental car or taxi to get home with my groceries.

More recently, when I was car light and living in a small town, my grocery store was 800 metres from the first house and about 400 metres from the second. I walked. Often I stopped in on my way home from work at lunch.

Now, one grocery store is 2.2 km away and the others (in a shopping centre with K-Mart, Big W, etc) are 2.6 km away. We drive. We could probably cycle to the one that is 2.2 km away and come back with groceries. I have walked that a few times. But the one that is 2.6 km away involves too much climbing for my liking at this point, especially with groceries. I have walked there and back once.

I'm not really big on cycling to a grocery store to get groceries.

And very soon ... either 300 metres or 3 km.
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Old 08-23-14, 08:42 AM
  #46  
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Depending on which store i go to, it can range from nearly 3 miles one way, to 1.2 miles. I often ride to the further one (giant) as it is open 24 hours a day ie at 3 am when there is not really anything on the road except me and local wildlife trying to cross.

In the past, before this giant was completed (it was expanded from a smaller grocery store that was part of a strip type layout) i would ride 8.5 miles one way to the giant down in levittown. Sometimes i bike+bus, but usually i was just on the bike. I
am thinking about patronizing that location again (also 24 hours) but in the daytime since it's not bike in the dark friendly and has no shoulder on some parts.

- Andy
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Old 09-18-14, 11:22 PM
  #47  
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1.5 miles to Safeway
0.75 miles to a small g store
1.8 miles to a Trader Joes (yeah) and the parking with a car is very limited, encouraging we bikers to ride them there.
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Old 09-19-14, 12:04 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by LDier
1.5 miles to Safeway
0.75 miles to a small g store
1.8 miles to a Trader Joes (yeah) and the parking with a car is very limited, encouraging we bikers to ride them there.
I've noticed that Trader Joes usually have small parking lots. Is that intentional on their part?
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Old 09-19-14, 05:24 AM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by Machka
The OP asked how far ... not how much time.


Even as a motorist, I've always done my measurements in kilometres.

But as both a cyclist and a motorist, I also think how long that will take. Time is important when you lead a busy life.

And as we look for a new place to live, one of the concerns is how long it will take to get to work ... how much time, by whatever method of transportation we choose.
On the internet, the "you know you're from western Pennsylvania when..." question always has one of the answers being, "...when you measure distance by time." It is very common in my area.

For the record, I'm not car free. I am 40 minutes, measured by my normal means of time, from grocery stores in 4 directions. That's at driving 60 mph straight along with maybe 1 stop whichever direction I go. That would be about 40 miles. That would pretty much be why I am not car free.
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Old 09-19-14, 11:47 PM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by JoeyBike
Just another idea for doing groceries car-free: Years ago I lived about a 40 minute walk from a major grocery chain store. Once a month I would make a MAJOR grocery run - so I would walk to the grocery and catch a taxi home with the giant load which the taxi driver would always help me carry up one flight of stairs to my apartment.
I don't live too far from stores since they put a four lane bypass on my side of the next town along the interstate, it drew in big stores and fast food/sodium peddlers.

It's less than 2.5 miles to Wally's. There's a smaller chain, only three hundred stores, a mile away. It costs 25% more at the smaller chain for the same name brand items than it does at Walmart. The only contact that I have with any Ingle's employee outside of their store is when I joke with them about their being in the wrong store at Walmart. To a person, their response is "Ingle's doesn't pay me enough to shop there." Back on topic...........it's almost 5 miles to Walmart taking back roads to avoid the 55mph bypass that doesn't have a shoulder.

I use Walmart.com for bulk/heavy items that don't fit or I don't want to carry on the bike. Large packs of toilet/paper towels, liquid detergent, dish soap and the like. I keep a list to build a $50 order that is brought to my front porch without any shipping charges. Same net price as buying at the store.
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