A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

Post by Bayart » Mon, May 04, 2020, 8:47 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #25

dx87 wrote: post #5

That's actually how a lot of businesses in rural parts of Alaska work, even places that don't require a boat or plane to access. My dad lives right off the highway in a small town in Alaska, and the closest thing to a grocery store is an old airplane hanger that one of the locals runs a general store out of. The owner makes weekly trips to Costco, which is ~4 hours away, and buys as much as they can fit into a big U-…

Rural Croatia too, except it’s a truck that comes to all of the villages 3x/week with staple items. Plays ridiculously stereotypical Croatian music through a loudspeaker to announce his arrival. And then a meat truck once a week and a fish truck more irregularly. Took requests as well. I think of it like villages having Amazon Prime starting in the late 90s.

Post by pjc50 » Mon, May 04, 2020, 8:55 AM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #73

koyote wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting! I would have thought Croatia to be small enough to not need such a system; i.e. supermarkets not further than half an hour drive away. Or is it just a matter of convenience?

>> I would have thought Croatia to be small enough to not need such a system; i.e. supermarkets not further than half an hour drive away. I still think about the UK. I cannot imagine anywhere in the UK being more than an hour or two from anywhere else.

Post by arethuza » Mon, May 04, 2020, 9:09 AM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #166

arethuza wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"an hour or two from anywhere else" A few moments with Google maps and I found two places in Scotland that are ~23 hours apart by car. :-) And Scotland is only a small part of the UK.

Is there anywhere in Scotland more than two hours from any town? Only on some islands, I think (Unst is 2½ hours from Lerwick.)

Post by icebraining » Mon, May 04, 2020, 9:16 AM UTC

reagular wrote: post #133

I would love operating a small ship for my groceries store rather than sitting in front of my computer all day.

Post by kolla » Mon, May 04, 2020, 9:43 AM UTC

madaxe_again wrote: post #164

koyote wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting! I would have thought Croatia to be small enough to not need such a system; i.e. supermarkets not further than half an hour drive away. Or is it just a matter of convenience?

Small, but the transport network isn’t necessarily reliable. Mountains are a big obstacle. Croatia, like most of the balkans, is really mountainous. When it’s not mountains it’s islands. Nightmare for transport infrastructure development. A lot of rural Europe has laughably poor mountain infrastructure - dirt roads, often badly damaged, are sometimes the only way in or out of a village, and when it rains, the guy wit…