mindstalk | (Reply)

Due to some quirk of development, I can walk to 7 different grocery stores here despite a density of probably 4000-4500/km2. They all seem quite busy, with lots of cars in the ones that have parking lots. And this is a well-off area, though maybe "want to buy my produce" beats "could afford delivery fees", I dunno.

I admit that I am also 'planning' for the kind of place and lifestyle I like[1], which includes being able to run to a non-convenience store for more spinach at will, and not having to plan for delivery time windows, or paying for delivery charges, or making sure orders are big enough to waive delivery charges. (If that's even a thing. My one experience with grocery delivery was quite expensive, like a 60% markup IIRC. I did do a lot of curbside pickup in 2021 (to avoid going inside) with the fee waived for orders over $35, but that's pickup.)

([1] Japanese society isn't perfect but its cities are pretty close to perfection for me.)

I don't think it matters much if some heavy bulk things are delivered; as long as a lot of shopping is done in-person, people will want quick access to a store.

Because a supermarket requires so many people, it also works as a stand-in for lots of other things that require fewer customers. If there are 10,000 people for a super, then there are (on USA average) enough people for 4-5 convenience stores (Japan also has 2000 people per konbini), 20 restaurants, 6 dentists, presumably (I haven't done the math) some bars and coffeehouses and bakeries, etc. It's not "all you need for a neighborhood is a supermarket" but "if you can support a supermarket by foot traffic, you can support most other things as well." (I may have taken that for granted without spelling it out here, relying on past posts.) Some big exceptions being high schools (especially larger ones), hospitals (US seems to be about 66,000 people per hospital, so even a 20 minute walk requires a bit higher density, 13,000 people/km2), colleges (bigger than high schools, and not everyone goes, so need a lot more people), and clustered jobs.

I wonder if UK post offices are sufficiently different from US ones, or if it's a small town vs. big city thing. The idea of a US post office providing special community services is alien to me.

Anyway, thank you for reading my long nerdy post!