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3rd in a series, previous is here.
kchoze had said the US has 8000-12000 people per supermarket, so I've been using 12,000 to be conservative. But a casual websearch turned up the US having 38,000 "supermarkets", or one per 8400 people. Say 8000. Then a density of 8000 people/km2 is walkable like 12,000, one market per square kilometer. And we can apply the checkerboard trick of the previous post, so that even 4,000/km2 has no one more than a kilometer from a supermarket.
There's a simpler approach: instead of thinking in squares, because they're easy to lay out, think in diamonds, the 'circle' equivalent for a grid, all the locations within X distance of a point. If r is the distance from a center to the corner of a diamond/square, the area is 2r^2. So a diamond of 1 km 'radius', trip length, around a supermarket, has area of 2 km2, thus 8000 people at a density of 4,000/km2.
kchoze, and a couple more websearches, indicate that both the US and Japan have a bit over 2000 people per convenience store. If we assume a max of 6 minutes or 0.5 km for a 'convenient' walk, then there's an area of 0.5 km2, or 2000 people at the 4000 density. Just enough to support it, maybe. If we want a 4 minute walk, that needs a density of 9000 people/km2 to get 2000 people. For 2 minutes, like a real 'corner store', you'd need a density of 36,000 people/km2.
Anyway, that seems to be a couple different approaches pointing to a local density of 4000/km2 being the bare minimum for walkability, if laid out just right, with respect to supermarkets and corner/convenience stores. If you want lower density without much car use, make sure people feel safe biking, e.g. by making sure any cars can't go fast. And if you want robust walkability, go higher -- 6000-12000.
I'm not sure about supermarkets in Japan. One source says 5000, so 24,000 people each; another says 20,000, for 6,000 people each. A source has 2384 supermarkets in Canada, for nearly 16,000 people each. Definitions of 'supermarket' may vary.
kchoze had said the US has 8000-12000 people per supermarket, so I've been using 12,000 to be conservative. But a casual websearch turned up the US having 38,000 "supermarkets", or one per 8400 people. Say 8000. Then a density of 8000 people/km2 is walkable like 12,000, one market per square kilometer. And we can apply the checkerboard trick of the previous post, so that even 4,000/km2 has no one more than a kilometer from a supermarket.
There's a simpler approach: instead of thinking in squares, because they're easy to lay out, think in diamonds, the 'circle' equivalent for a grid, all the locations within X distance of a point. If r is the distance from a center to the corner of a diamond/square, the area is 2r^2. So a diamond of 1 km 'radius', trip length, around a supermarket, has area of 2 km2, thus 8000 people at a density of 4,000/km2.
kchoze, and a couple more websearches, indicate that both the US and Japan have a bit over 2000 people per convenience store. If we assume a max of 6 minutes or 0.5 km for a 'convenient' walk, then there's an area of 0.5 km2, or 2000 people at the 4000 density. Just enough to support it, maybe. If we want a 4 minute walk, that needs a density of 9000 people/km2 to get 2000 people. For 2 minutes, like a real 'corner store', you'd need a density of 36,000 people/km2.
Anyway, that seems to be a couple different approaches pointing to a local density of 4000/km2 being the bare minimum for walkability, if laid out just right, with respect to supermarkets and corner/convenience stores. If you want lower density without much car use, make sure people feel safe biking, e.g. by making sure any cars can't go fast. And if you want robust walkability, go higher -- 6000-12000.
I'm not sure about supermarkets in Japan. One source says 5000, so 24,000 people each; another says 20,000, for 6,000 people each. A source has 2384 supermarkets in Canada, for nearly 16,000 people each. Definitions of 'supermarket' may vary.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-14 01:09 (UTC)From:The closest grocery store to us is https://www.nbrhoodproduce.com/ -- a very small grocery store, the size of maybe the median convenience store. They stock local produce, a bulk section, refrigerated goods, and some shelf-stable items, and we are able to do most of our shopping there. We also place special orders for some things they don't carry, which gets us a bulk or case discount (20% markup over wholesale, instead of the standard 40-50%). One of the owners specifically chose that location because it's a minor food desert, and is looking to expand to a series of these small grocery stores that just serve a neighborhood each, fed out of a central hub. I think he's hoping that other people do the same, for that matter.
There's no parking to speak of, since it's just a tiny store and most of the customers just walk over. His stated goal was to increase food access, but I think these could be densely sprinkled throughout an urban area and further reduce need for cars -- both by closer proximity to residents and by the second-order effect of allowing more frequent but smaller and faster grocery trips.
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Date: 2021-07-14 11:59 (UTC)From:https://theweek.com/articles/977300/mystery-americas-small-groceries
This has me wondering a bit about what the equivalent rules of thumb are in countries that don't share the U.S.'s tendency toward sprawl.
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Date: 2021-07-14 12:16 (UTC)From:Where I stayed in Osaka there were at least four supermarkets within a 12 minute walk, at least 3 of which had no immediate same-level car parking, and two of them in the basements of train stations. My first week in a different spot had access to two supermarkets, at least one without car parking. My stay in Santiago included a supermarket in the first story of a high rise. Amsterdam had a supermarket across from the main train station. I think "food market bigger than a corner store" has been a successful model even without suburban sprawl.
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Date: 2024-08-12 17:49 (UTC)From:I happened to do a search on Houten, Netherlands. A GMaps 'supermarket' turned up 8 hits, which seemed the sorts of things we'd expect as Americans: big stores, big selection, chains. Lidl, Aldi, Albert Heiten or something. AH Cardo seemed like a bad store; 7 good ones gives 7300 people per supermarket. A bit less than the US average, but not hugely so.
No idea how much that generalizes, of course. But at a gut level it makes sense to me that you'd want several thousand customers to both justify bulk (cheaper) trucking, and ensure high turnover of a wide variety of produce, dairy/eggs, fresh meats, and fresh seafood.
Though it also feels true that a larger store that many people drive to, could suck fresh food out of smaller stores (more expensive, so more people drive, reducing turnover and driving up prices more...), whereas a carless population could support more and smaller fresh food stores.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-14 20:04 (UTC)From:On the super front, I can think of 16 or 17 supermarkets in Camberville, for 12-13,000 people each.
TJ and WF by Alewife.
TJ and WF by the River.
WF and Hmart in Central.
Star and Star by Porter Square.
Pemberton.
Some WF that used to be Johnny D up Beacon.
Market Basket in Union.
TJ at Assembly.
Some Star in east Somerville not too far from Sullivan.
Bfresh in Davis.
Stop and Shop by Alewife Brook (probably serving Medford too.)
Stop and Shop a bit south of Assembly (Thanks, Google Maps! I had no idea)
Reliable Market in Union might have enough variety and produce to qualify.
Maps also points out Brothers Marketplace, seems a new place in Kendall, and from the photos super level. Counting that and Reliable and it's down to 11,000 people per store.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-14 06:45 (UTC)From:... actually minor nitpick, WRT the supermarket density thing, the reason for the higher range despite the known ratio would be that some percentage of the population doesn't live near a supermarket, right? I wonder how these numbers have changed over history.
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Date: 2022-11-22 08:07 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2024-08-12 17:43 (UTC)From:One reason for varying ratios is that definition of 'supermarket' can vary, e.g. https://www.foodindustry.com/articles/how-many-grocery-stores-are-there-in-the-united-states/