Do you walk or drive to the supermarket?

[dulcemariamar]

I usually walk to the supermarket with my little cart. (Yeah I know I am cool like that). Sometimes we drive to the supermarket, about once a month if we want to buy a lot of stuff.

I know it is great that I walk everywhere, but I am so lazy......

[popcorn]

In Madrid we drove to a big Carrefour or I walked with my little cart (yep, I'm cool too!) to Lidl which was closeby.

Here we live about 3 minutes walking from Rewe and Muller (big stores that have everything between the two) so I go walking and we usually just pick up a couple items at a time. And it's flat which is nice because my neighborhood in Madrid was hilly and I never wanted to go anywhere just because of that!

[Deleted]

We can finally walk to the supermarket and it's a great feeling! No more subway rides or buses

[allibally]

I could walk in a pinch. But I just prefer to drive since I usually pick up 5 days of food. And during school term it's on my way home.

I want a bike and then I would just bike over. I don't have a cart and even then it's still about a 12 minute walk. The Aldi is about 4 minutes away but I can never find everything I need.

[anna7602]

Walking, little-cart-owner over here! In NYC, I used to just use DD's stroller to stash bigger grocery items, but I think I will adopt the cart system there, too, when we go back.

The only times I drive to the supermarket in the US are when my parents happen to be visiting with their car and I take advantage to do a huge run. I haven't had my own car in almost 11 years.

[popcorn]

May 25, 2012 5:44:06 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Walking, little-cart-owner over here! In NYC, I used to just use DD's stroller to stash bigger grocery items, but I think I will adopt the cart system there, too, when we go back.

The only times I drive to the supermarket in the US are when my parents happen to be visiting with their car and I take advantage to do a huge run. I haven't had my own car in almost 11 years.

DH and I are thinking about going carless. It seems we can get around very easily here without it (even to Ikea--woot!). How did you make the decision to not have a car? Seems like it must save quite a bit of money between insurance and gas even if the car is paid off. Or do you make that up in public transportation costs?

[wise_rita]

I haven't had a car in nearly 5 years, so walking it is. I've just adopted the old lady shopping trolly, which I am exceedingly happy about!

[ktkl09]

We walk rarely, there's nothing really in walking distance. And we usually do one big trip a month in France, we must drive for this. If we go in Switzerland, I usually just stop somewhere on my way home from work.

[travelingturtle]

We don't have a car, haven't had one for the past 2 years, but will get one soon. Even with the car, we'll walk to the grocery store. We live walking distance to everything and it's pretty inconvenient to drive in my neighborhood. We only want to use the car for road-trips or day trips to the lake or something.

I either shop several times through the week and put things in my son's stroller, or take the cart and get a week's worth. I have a grocery store right next door, but I only use that for basics when I need something quick. The better grocery store is a 15 minute walk.

[violetsmommy]

If we dont need much I can just walk to the little Tesco 5 mins down. To do our shop (2-3 weeks worth) at Asda we have to either bbus, taxi or ocasionally MIL will go as well so get ride from her. Its too far too walk there for us.

[violetsmommy]

Oh and no car for us either though we have talked about getting one.. who knows tho

[Deleted]

Drive. It's 11 miles, there is no public transport and we shopping once a week. We try to use public transport wherever possible though, it's better for the environment and means we can both have a drink.

[Cheesecake]

It really depends. On Saturdays DH and I actually take the car and go together, stop by butcher, stop by produce guy, stop by a grocery store for stuff we can't get at produce guy or butcher (like milk and soft drinks and detergent and stuff. If needed we stop at cheese guy and/or liquor store and/or bakery as well. (Yep, the grocery store sells everything, we don't need to go to 5 different stores, but you can't compare the quality, really!)

During the week if I need something extra it all depends, I might grab my bike, I might walk and I might just hop off the tram a couple of stops early to buy that 1 thing I'm missing and then walk home from there.

[crimsonandclover]

In Germany: I walk. It's 5 minutes on foot. If we have a big party coming up then we'll drive so I don't have to carry it all home.

Here in the US: We drive. We live in the middle of cornfields, and besides being a boring diet, it's only just starting to grow, so we can't eat it yet.

[clickerish]

Both. The major market that sells paper products and what have you is 10 miles away. We drive to that every two weeks or so. Otherwise, we walk to the local store and Farmer's Market that's about 5 minutes from the house. It doesn't have everything or we'd just go there--but sometimes you really need cleaning supplies.

[mrsukyankee]

It depends. I rarely walk as the closest market is 1 mile away, but I will go on the bus on the way home if I only need a few items. Otherwise we drive or order stuff online.

[dpdw]

I could do either, but in reality I order all non-fresh items online for delivery and our maid goes to the "wet market" almost daily for fish, meats, eggs, fruits and veggies.

[blushing]

We walk just about everywhere. Anything within a 2 mile radius is considered walking distance, even for my 4 year old DS. Otherwise I take the bus. Or if it's late at night or feeling sick.

We don't have a car, but we rent one every few months and do some trips. DH cycles to work.

[grosnl19]

Walk since we don't have a car. I have a cart too!

[bugabean]

Neither DH nor I have ever had a car. It's about a 2-minute walk to Døgn Netto (smaller, but open 8 to midnight) and maybe 4 minutes to Føtex (has everything).

[anna7602]

May 25, 2012 5:48:19 GMT -5 popcorn said:

May 25, 2012 5:44:06 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Walking, little-cart-owner over here! In NYC, I used to just use DD's stroller to stash bigger grocery items, but I think I will adopt the cart system there, too, when we go back.

The only times I drive to the supermarket in the US are when my parents happen to be visiting with their car and I take advantage to do a huge run. I haven't had my own car in almost 11 years.

DH and I are thinking about going carless. It seems we can get around very easily here without it (even to Ikea--woot!). How did you make the decision to not have a car? Seems like it must save quite a bit of money between insurance and gas even if the car is paid off. Or do you make that up in public transportation costs?

We ditched the cars when we were both living in Boston. My car lease ran out and DH sold his beat-up car around the same time. They were both basically just sitting parked on the street most of the time and any decision we made about driving somewhere was fraught with the concern we wouldn't find parking when we returned. Then we moved to Madrid and then to NYC and that was that. Never had a car in either of those cities.

Public transport costs aren't even close to what having a car in NYC would have cost us. When I was still working FT outside the home, I think I paid about $76/month for a subway pass. That's about $150 for me & DH, which was taken out of our paychecks pre-taxes. I don't think I could have gotten a garage for that amount per month, not to mention gas & insurance and whatever you spend on getting the car itself. Street parking in NY is a PITA since it's limited and since there's always street cleaning (meaning you have to move your car if the street you're parked on is being cleaned from, say, 9-11am on Tuesday, etc.)

In the 2 years before Paris, I was WAH and DH was biking to work most days, so our transport costs were even lower. We joined "zipcar" to have access to a rental car when necessary (weekends out of town) and this was cheaper than renting a car occasionally from the big agencies. There's a set fee per year (can't remember at all now what it is) and then it's something like $13/hour when you actually rent it, but it includes gas and insurance. We went upstate several weekends last spring and summer and priced it out. It was still way cheaper to do zipcar than if we owned our own car.

The only reason I think we might want to own a car again is if DD's school situation gets totally crazy when we're back in NY and she has to go to a different neighborhood every day. Especially if we have another kid (wouldn't want to be getting up at dawn to board a subway with DD and a baby and then doing it again in the afternoon). But, I would not be very happy if we had to have a car in NY.

/novel over.

[allibally]

Popcorn: Germany has a car share program. They might have other stuff now but the DB has a program were you can sign up to be a member and then rent the cars from different train stations in the country. We had one through the Swiss train company for a 4 month trial. We could even use it to get a car when we were in Germany. We just had to pay a little more.

If we stay in Chicago I don't think we will purchase a car if mine was to die. It's a little bit of a pain to have one in a city. Parking isn't to bad by us. But I don't really use it that much and public transport is pretty good here. We also have a zip car station right across the street form us.

[NomadicMama]

There are two groceries within walking distance, but neither is very good. I drive to the commissary, it's about a 15 minute drive. I might be more open to walking, but my almost three year old refuses to ride in a stroller, or allow me to use our Ergo to strap him to my back--but he gets tired after a while and wants to be carried.

We did go from two cars to one when we lived in NoVA, right by a Metro station. We even went for five weeks without our car when we shipped it ahead before our move. We took the train and bus as we were able, and rented a ZipCar as needed. It worked. And, with DH deploying, I am thrilled to have just one car payment, instead of two, like we had last deployment.

[mouseinlux]

I have no choice but to drive as it's 20min to Auchan and 15 to Match in the car.

[clogged]

My store - home route is a 15 min bike ride, without child and bags of groceries weighing me down. On days I need bread, we bike. On days we need potatoes, 8 liters of milk, and a dozen apples, we take the car.

My old house was 12 blocks. I biked or walked only.

[dorothyinAus]

I walk to do the weekly grocery run. I've figured out how to plan menus to get everything I need in in one of the hand baskets and two Aldi-sized reusable bags, so I walk home balanced with one bag on each shoulder.

Once a month or so, we'll do a big-stuff run for DH's cokes, TP, laundry detergent, and other stuff that would throw off my balance or be too big/heavy for me to carry.

I actually enjoy walking to the grocery, except in the hottest part of summer.

[lolo]

I have some groceries delivered--get a weekly delivery of organic fruit and veg, as well as some other essentials--and then usually top that up with a trip to the grocery store by foot. The big grocery store is about 15 minutes from my house walking.

[elenetxu]

We tend to drive since it's right on the way home and DH has a bad habit of buying heavy drinks. I need to get into the habit of going to the butcher/fish market/fruit market instead of always going to the same supermarket...

[allibally]

May 26, 2012 3:30:38 GMT -5 elenetxu said:

We tend to drive since it's right on the way home and DH has a bad habit of buying heavy drinks. I need to get into the habit of going to the butcher/fish market/fruit market instead of always going to the same supermarket...

I need to do this too. Now that I don't pick up groceries on the way home from school. I could really pick some different places. I did go to a new store last week that I liked. They had the biggest chicken breasts I've ever seen. Plus a good selection of European and other ethnic foods.

Now that it's memorial day weekend the farmer's markets are starting up! So I think I will check out a few next week.