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Prompted by this article on America's missing corner stores and this video on Dutch grocery shopping.
Apart from a few weeks of contract work in Redwood Shores, and a week in the countryside outside Amsterdam, I think I've lived my entire life within a 20 minute walk of a supermarket, and usually a fair bit closer than that. Not by coincidence, I plan my residences with that in mind. This also means I haven't gone to corner stores much; why bother, when a cheaper supermarket is 5-10 minutes away? Still, sometimes, especially expanding to some specialty neighborhood stores:
Childhood: one corner store or another for the Sunday newspaper, and I think to pick up a gallon of milk when that was the only thing wanted. Also a "Fruit and Produce" stand we sometimes used, I wasn't told why: presumably better selection, freshness, or prices.
Pasadena: supermarket was 15 minutes away, so I started getting milk from a corner store in between; a bit more expensive, but saved my scrawny arms from having to haul milk 15 minutes on top of everything else I was getting.
Cambridge/Somerville: there was a meat market in Davis Square which I think I would visit sometimes even from Porter Square, and definitely when I was living in Powderhouse Square. Fair variety and definitely cheaper (for meat; they sold other things, often at a markup.) In Porter I lived between two Star Markets (super), but Powderhouse was interesting as Davis long didn't have *any* nearby supermarket -- closest was Porter Square! But Powderhouse is 10 minutes in the wrong direction, so the closest had been a 19 minute walk to a distant market. Except that a Bfresh opened in Davis like right before I moved there. It was odd, but enough of a supermarket to work.
Osaka: memory is vague, but I think I sometimes used the closer conbini for bread (the cheap white stuff, not a favorite but stopgap calories or late night snack) and milk. Maybe; I definitely have memories of getting milk from the supermarket too, not like I was getting gallons for my tiny fridge. Conbini also had prepared hot foods. The market was an 8 minute walk away but somehow it *felt* further.
Apart from a few weeks of contract work in Redwood Shores, and a week in the countryside outside Amsterdam, I think I've lived my entire life within a 20 minute walk of a supermarket, and usually a fair bit closer than that. Not by coincidence, I plan my residences with that in mind. This also means I haven't gone to corner stores much; why bother, when a cheaper supermarket is 5-10 minutes away? Still, sometimes, especially expanding to some specialty neighborhood stores:
Childhood: one corner store or another for the Sunday newspaper, and I think to pick up a gallon of milk when that was the only thing wanted. Also a "Fruit and Produce" stand we sometimes used, I wasn't told why: presumably better selection, freshness, or prices.
Pasadena: supermarket was 15 minutes away, so I started getting milk from a corner store in between; a bit more expensive, but saved my scrawny arms from having to haul milk 15 minutes on top of everything else I was getting.
Cambridge/Somerville: there was a meat market in Davis Square which I think I would visit sometimes even from Porter Square, and definitely when I was living in Powderhouse Square. Fair variety and definitely cheaper (for meat; they sold other things, often at a markup.) In Porter I lived between two Star Markets (super), but Powderhouse was interesting as Davis long didn't have *any* nearby supermarket -- closest was Porter Square! But Powderhouse is 10 minutes in the wrong direction, so the closest had been a 19 minute walk to a distant market. Except that a Bfresh opened in Davis like right before I moved there. It was odd, but enough of a supermarket to work.
Osaka: memory is vague, but I think I sometimes used the closer conbini for bread (the cheap white stuff, not a favorite but stopgap calories or late night snack) and milk. Maybe; I definitely have memories of getting milk from the supermarket too, not like I was getting gallons for my tiny fridge. Conbini also had prepared hot foods. The market was an 8 minute walk away but somehow it *felt* further.