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Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

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Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#31

Post by beaeglebeach »

rsynnott wrote: post #22
mytailorisrich wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same in most large cities. Of course this is paid for at the till...

> Of course this is paid for at the till... I’m not sure how true this is everywhere. Within walking distance (inner suburb of Dublin on the edge of the city center) I have two Tesco Superstores and about eight Tesco Expresses and Metros (Tesco splits its shop types into broad categories). The ‘superstores’ have the same pricing as each other and as suburban ones, the Expresses and Metros have the same pricing within…

The elevation in price is less location and more whether you're able to buy in bulk. With careful rotation discipline and a handcart it's achievable on foot though, although clearly more convenient with a car and a nice wide lot.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#32

Post by joshghent »

noduerme wrote: post #26

After spending a few weeks back in Europe (after 8 years in the US), it quickly came back to me how much easier it is to live a healthy daily pattern of life there than it is here. In particular: Shopping for food in the US is almost always a separate trip in a car or a bus or on foot. Whereas in Spain it's common to go meet friends, pick up some bread and veg from the store, meet more friends and pick up things from…

Absolutely, design of cities dictates behaviour. The secondary effects of this are interesting too. For example, european kitchens can be smaller because they don’t need to store as much.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#33

Post by Semaphor »

Pop 200k city in Germany. Historical city center is roughly 2 km²

We have one Aldi, one organic supermarket, 4 REWE, 1 Edeka, and one Penny. Everything but Penny is less than 1 km away from where I live, the closest REWE is 300 meters.

This density falls off when you leave the center, but you still usually have at least one within walking distance.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#34

Post by pstadler »

There's a YouTube channel[1] explaining the difference between North American cities and European ones. As a resident of Amsterdam he covers this city a lot.

I'm from Zurich, Switzerland. I don't own a car because everything I need is either in walking/cycling distance or reachable by public transport. While I've been well aware of the car dependency situation in North America, watching a few episodes from the mentioned YouTube channel, made me realize that this is a self-inflicted problem because of car centric zoning and development rules. The often cited "greater distances" are in fact the result of these, not the cause.

[1] https://youtube.com/@NotJustBikes

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#35

Post by Semaphor »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #6
eterps wrote: post #4

As a resident, I would never opt to drive to the supermarket, I prefer to walk, or take my bicycle if necessary.

It's the same in most large cities. Of course this is paid for at the till...

Nah, we have a very competitive supermarket system in Germany, stuff like that would kill you, just like Walmart died here.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#36

Post by pmontra »

I remember I had 5 supermarkets between 5 to 10 minutes walking distance from my home when I was living in Milan. 100 meters in 1 minute is 6 km per hour which is a brisk pace so the closest supermarket was at about 400 meters. Of course I never drove to them, I always walked and came home with a couple of bags two or three times per week, usually at 2 PM when the supermarkets are almost empty. Water weights a lot and could be a reason to go shopping by car but 1) I always drank water from the pipe in the kitchen since I was little 2) I would have to walk to my home from where I found a parking place on the street and that was often as much as walking from the supermarket.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#37

Post by Notatheist »

ssdspoimdsjvv wrote: post #8

It seems they mean grocery store, rather than supermarket. Also take into account that in the Netherlands it's more common to go grocery shopping daily or every few days.

>dagelijkse levensmiddelen

That means "things required for daily life". They definitely mean supermarket. It's about the same in Rotterdam. I'm an eight minute walk away from four different big supermarket chains. If I walk 10 minutes I can get to the second most distant Albert Heijn.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#38

Post by michael_vo »

ssdspoimdsjvv wrote: post #8

It seems they mean grocery store, rather than supermarket. Also take into account that in the Netherlands it's more common to go grocery shopping daily or every few days.

NotJustBikes has amazing videos on these habits. They also take garbage out daily to the underground bins while going to the grocery store.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#39

Post by ant6n »

dtech wrote: post #21
ssdspoimdsjvv wrote: post #8

It seems they mean grocery store, rather than supermarket. Also take into account that in the Netherlands it's more common to go grocery shopping daily or every few days.

What is the difference? In Europe we call basically everything a supermarket and its a synonym for grocery store. The only exceptions would be minimarket which are extremely tiny and hypermarket which is your US Walmart-style extremely large store that also sells electronics and clothes etc.

Not exactly true. There’s the notion of a corner store, in different languages. But these things don’t really exist anymore since supermarket chains have taken over, some in really small spaces. Btw, the chain stores are often franchises, so owner operated like in the old days, but with scale, brand and prices of big chains.

Re: Average distance to a supermarket in Amsterdam is 400 meter or 1300 feet

#40

Post by ffgjgf1 »

DeathArrow wrote: post #5
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #2

in india, that is your local grocery store. every street has them. of all kinds, stocking different things, sometimes similar things. these give employment to a huge number of people who are simple passive shopkeepers, they do not do any advertising, do not have to raise loans (though some do) or "invest" in anything exotic. just their stock in hand. since the "concentration" of power is distributed, everyone owns th…

I would gladly take small, diverse stores who sell local products over big supermarket chains. Unfortunately, in most big cities in EU this is not an option, anymore.

Except the user in the comment above is describing stores which sell the same products as supermarkets just at higher prices and less inventory.

> small, diverse stores who sell local products over big supermarket chains. Unfortunately, in most big cities in EU

I guess it depends but where I am more upscale areas are full of such shops. Even right next to large supermarkets. They do fine because they offer niche/specialized products at much higher prices, to people who are willing to pay X times more for grass feed ultra organic beef raised in a “small farm” with the deceased cow’s former exact former address on the packaging than for factory processed anonymous beef imported from some “inferior” country..

However while superficially these might seem similar to family owned corner grocery in economically less developed countries they are almost nothing alike.

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