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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

#111

Post by Ancapistani »

Reason077 wrote: post #50
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...

> “It's the same in most large cities. Of course this is paid for at the till...” I think it can actually save you money. I’ve lived in London flats where there were multiple large supermarket brands (Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, ASDA) all within easy walking distance. And smaller corner convenience stores like Tesco Express and Co-op and even Amazon’s one. And also some of the discounters (Iceland, Aldi) only slightly fur…

Coming from an American perspective, this seems nuts:

> So I’d buy my olive oil and coffee there but go elsewhere for my apples and tomatoes etc… easy to do when all the shops are close together and you’re walking by them anyway!

You're just walking into a supermarket carrying bags from other stores? Do that here and you'll quickly have "personal security" in the form of loss prevention following you around the store - if they don't stop you at the door.

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

#112

Post by DrBazza »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #68
DrBazza wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not so much 'the way they were', rather, I'd prefer to live in a small town with a butchers, bakers, and grocers, so that I'm spending my money in the local economy, and that I'm getting higher quality produce, and back to the original post, shops that are within reasonable walking distance. The number of towns or villages in my area that have this are vanishingly small. In fact, my medium sized town (20-30,000…

Well, McDonalds, Costa, etc. provide jobs to locals, especially young people. That's the local economy as much as other shops. Independent butchers and grocers have mostly disappeared because they are expensive and less convenient. Places were you can still find some are usually either 'posh' or where the local demographics has special meat/dietary requirements, shall we say... The advantage of an independent butcher…

I must be fortunate then, as my closest local butcher that have to drive to, is generally cheaper than my regular supermarket.

Supermarkets aren't exactly strangers to price fixing and ripping off customers. Once you've driven off the local competition, you can set your prices to whatever you want. My area is known for high petrol prices, controlled by guess who? Local supermarkets. Drive a few miles and it's 5p per litre cheaper.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/dec/08/supermarket...

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/results/why-its-so-hard-to-prove...

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

#113

Post by DrBazza »

withinboredom wrote: post #87
mytailorisrich wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, McDonalds, Costa, etc. provide jobs to locals, especially young people. That's the local economy as much as other shops. Independent butchers and grocers have mostly disappeared because they are expensive and less convenient. Places were you can still find some are usually either 'posh' or where the local demographics has special meat/dietary requirements, shall we say... The advantage of an independent butcher…

Those big chains drain money from the local economy though. Small independent stores only send the cost of supplies/restocking out of the local economy. Chains mean there is continuously less money circulating in the town and requires people who import money from other local economies. Having chains in your town means that within a generation or two, the town will be effectively dead and hardly ever grow.

> Those big chains drain money from the local economy though

Exactly, all revenue goes back to HQ, and then off to somewhere else.

In some cases being part of a large company means the smaller branches that don't barely break even stay open and it's "good" for those towns in boom years.

But as soon as there's an economic downturn, they are the first stores to be closed.

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

#114

Post by badpun »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #98
sneed_chucker wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well, McDonalds, Costa, etc. provide jobs to locals, especially young people. That's the local economy as much as other shops. McDonald's and the rest provide very low wage jobs to locals while leveraging their economies of scale to undercut local competitors on price, while all the profits go into the balance sheet of a company that's headquartered far away, sometimes in a different country. They are precisely not…

> McDonald's and the rest provide very low wage jobs to locals I know this is about the UK, but just as an FYI, in the US, small service sector employers provide an even lower wage because they rarely offer tax advantaged benefits that big businesses can offer, such as subsidized health insurance premiums paid with pre tax income, and paying for retirement savings/public transit/daycare/life insurance/etc with pre ta…

Interesting. In my country (Poland), pretty much most of the benefits and perks are taxed as income, so there is no tax advantage in paying employees with them instead of cash.

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

#115

Post by badpun »

Ancapistani wrote: post #111
Reason077 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “It's the same in most large cities. Of course this is paid for at the till...” I think it can actually save you money. I’ve lived in London flats where there were multiple large supermarket brands (Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, ASDA) all within easy walking distance. And smaller corner convenience stores like Tesco Express and Co-op and even Amazon’s one. And also some of the discounters (Iceland, Aldi) only slightly fur…

Coming from an American perspective, this seems nuts: > So I’d buy my olive oil and coffee there but go elsewhere for my apples and tomatoes etc… easy to do when all the shops are close together and you’re walking by them anyway! You're just walking into a supermarket carrying bags from other stores? Do that here and you'll quickly have "personal security" in the form of loss prevention following you around the store…

It's not a problem where I live (Poland). If you're worried about it, you can show the content of your bag to security as you enter the store, and also carry receipt from the previous store.

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

#116

Post by gedy »

glimshe wrote: post #64

Living in the US and within walking distance (5-10 min walk) of a grocery store, I'd much rather drive because I can buy more things, thus making fewer trips over the month. It's the same 5 min by car, but it's just a lot more convenient. I have plenty of exercise, so I prefer to not carry a bunch of bags to stay fit...

Yeah it seems like a cultural thing whereas some people want to shop a little bit every day and driving is a hassle, others (like me) want to shop once a week or two and be done with it. Driving is not an issue, as I work and exercise from home.

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

#117

Post by zajio1am »

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.

Even if supermarket is in walking distance, the limiting factor is ability to take all the purchase with me. Using a car i could fill half the car with the purchase, so i do not need to visit it again for several weeks.

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

#118

Post by lotsofpulp »

badpun wrote: post #114
lotsofpulp wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> McDonald's and the rest provide very low wage jobs to locals I know this is about the UK, but just as an FYI, in the US, small service sector employers provide an even lower wage because they rarely offer tax advantaged benefits that big businesses can offer, such as subsidized health insurance premiums paid with pre tax income, and paying for retirement savings/public transit/daycare/life insurance/etc with pre ta…

Interesting. In my country (Poland), pretty much most of the benefits and perks are taxed as income, so there is no tax advantage in paying employees with them instead of cash.

Yes, the US is extremely corrupt in how it tilts working for a big employer more advantageous over a small employer.

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

#119

Post by Reason077 »

Ancapistani wrote: post #111
Reason077 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “It's the same in most large cities. Of course this is paid for at the till...” I think it can actually save you money. I’ve lived in London flats where there were multiple large supermarket brands (Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, ASDA) all within easy walking distance. And smaller corner convenience stores like Tesco Express and Co-op and even Amazon’s one. And also some of the discounters (Iceland, Aldi) only slightly fur…

Coming from an American perspective, this seems nuts: > So I’d buy my olive oil and coffee there but go elsewhere for my apples and tomatoes etc… easy to do when all the shops are close together and you’re walking by them anyway! You're just walking into a supermarket carrying bags from other stores? Do that here and you'll quickly have "personal security" in the form of loss prevention following you around the store…

> ”You're just walking into a supermarket carrying bags from other stores?”

Yes. This is 100% not a problem in any place I’ve ever lived. What else are you going to do with your bags? It’s not like you can check them at the door!

Some UK supermarkets now let you just walk around and self-scan your purchases using an app, skipping the check out. So I just pack the things straight into my bag or backpack as I go (no basket or cart), pay, and walk out.

Very occasionally it gets flagged up for a random security check when you go to pay, which just means an employee scans 3 random items from your bag to make sure they match what you scanned. But usually I just walk out straight past the security station and they don’t raise an eyebrow.

(Besides, if security are suspicious about you, they can just keep an eye on you from the back office CCTV anyhow. No need to follow you around the store!)

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

#120

Post by withinboredom »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #97
withinboredom wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those big chains drain money from the local economy though. Small independent stores only send the cost of supplies/restocking out of the local economy. Chains mean there is continuously less money circulating in the town and requires people who import money from other local economies. Having chains in your town means that within a generation or two, the town will be effectively dead and hardly ever grow.

> Having chains in your town means that within a generation or two, the town will be effectively dead and hardly ever grow. This is not true in the US. There are lots of places with chains (everywhere?) that are growing.

This is true for suburbs because the money comes from outside of the local economy since those people mostly commute to work. For actual small towns, nowhere near a large city, it's quite a different story, almost reminiscent of a 3rd world country.
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