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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

#121

Post by badpun »

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...

I'm in similar situation. I much prefer to walk, because it's healthier, cheaper, less stressful an more pleasant than driving. Also, since it doubles down as excercise, I don't have to do as much of it.

I carry the groceries in a large-ish (35 L) backpack.

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

#122

Post by badpun »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #118
badpun wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We weren't always like that, the laws started changing in this direction maybe 10 years ago. Before that, everyone with a decent job was getting a company car, an now company cars are only given for people who actually travel a lot on the job, and everyone else prefers the extra cash instead of the company car.

BTW the laws weren't changed to level the playing field for small companies, it was just our equivalent of IRS fixing loopholes to bring in more tax money.

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

#123

Post by noduerme »

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…

McDonald's jobs are dead end and low pay, suitable only for kids. Butcher, baker, etc. are skilled life-long careers.

France has really got it right, in my opinion. I don't know how much they subsidize local business, or what their incentives are for training, or if it's just their cultural attachment to good food, but I've traveled across France and never seen a village of over 300 people that didn't have a butcher, a green grocery / dairy shop and at least two kinds of bakeries. Of course there's always a huge Carrefour within driving distance, but even that is stunningly high quality compared with even supermarkets in other countries in Europe (let alone the wretched quality of counter service at supermarkets in the US).

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

#125

Post by kermitdekikker »

avazhi wrote: post #86

It’s an extremely tiny place with no geographic features, like mountains, whatsoever. This isn’t surprising and it isn’t something to extrapolate to anywhere that is even minutely dissimilar.

Amsterdam is not extremely big but almost 1 million people is not extremely tiny. And even then size little to do with these stats unless you are talking about places with less than a handful of supermarkets.

Flatness is nice (but weather is bad). However, the main thing is infrastructure and mixed zoning. When you build bike lanes, walkable streets and lots of shops, a livable city will follow, not the other way around. Build for the traffic you want rather than the traffic you have.

These stats on supermarkets will be similar in many European cities btw. Many cities in the US are also relatively flat, and you don't see the same thing generally.

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

#126

Post by mytailorisrich »

noduerme wrote: post #123
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…

McDonald's jobs are dead end and low pay, suitable only for kids. Butcher, baker, etc. are skilled life-long careers. France has really got it right, in my opinion. I don't know how much they subsidize local business, or what their incentives are for training, or if it's just their cultural attachment to good food, but I've traveled across France and never seen a village of over 300 people that didn't have a butcher,…

Well, actually France is one of the most successful markets for McDonald's.

France does not subsidise local business. In fact France is not business-friendly at all.

The French like quality food (and they also like McDonald's) and thus there is a viable market for it. That's all. It's the same in Spain or Italy, for instance.

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

#127

Post by Hardwired8976 »

zajio1am wrote: post #117
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.

But because stores are in walking distance, the need for big trips goes down and you just go after work sometimes in the week

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

#128

Post by mavamaarten »

alphakappa wrote: post #88
mavamaarten wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed! I was in SF for a few months. Finding affordable food was insanely hard. Fast food was both really cheap and everywhere. Fresh produce and basics like bread were expensive or hard to find, a long bus / tube drive away. Of course it's much easier to fall into that trap of shitty and cheap food. Where I live the balance is much easier. Vegetables, fruit, meat, ... it's all relatively cheap and easy to get, ther…

Curious to know where in SF you lived. Generally there’s bodegas all over the place and you can find fresh produce there. Not to mention, the city has good bakeries everywhere. Fast food (the well known chains) are quite hard to find in most neighborhoods.

Right in the center of the tenderloin area.

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

#129

Post by Der_Einzige »

anovikov wrote: post #3
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…

This model also means using of lots and lots of labor because sales volume of those shops is very small and it keeps entire family occupied. It means those people are unavailable for other productive activities. The world is entering labor shortage zone that will last for as long as we don't figure how to fix reproduction without abandoning human rights (which isn't an option anyway because there are many countries a…

You’re being downvoted because you’re right and HNs user base hates to hear the truth.

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

#130

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

MichaelRo wrote: post #105
pstadler wrote: post #34

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 mentio…

Very interesting link (@Not Just Bikes), didn't think it's so bad in the US with pedestrian walkways. I mean like I live in the Romanian suburb and it's not great, but supermarkets everywhere and walkways alongside car roads is the norm. What we still try to catch up is Netherland-ish bike lanes, problem's when they do it at all, "they" (city roadworks) implement it in a very Balkan way: they made a bike lane allrigh…

After having a look at the picture, it's obvious that bump is not by design, if you take the height of the asphalt layer into account, which is visible to the right side, but not there yet, where the bike lane is crossing the layer of compacted gravel.

So you are complaining about what is essentially an unfinished construction site ;-)

That aside, I tend to fly over such obstacles by jumping, since I can't remember anymore exactly. Early childhood, or such.

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