I was talking to a friend and complaining that the nearest grocery store is 3km from me, he says that Europeans consider that a reasonable distance to the store and I’m just being lazy.
I don’t have a car, I don’t have a bike, and the bus only comes by every four hours. Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to carry groceries 3km in 30C weather, or is my friend full of shit? Neither of us have been to Europe.
Obligatory “I’m not European” but have quite a few online friends from euro land that I yak with regularly.
Remember their grocery shopping habits are (typically) much different than Americans. Where US shoppers may go once every week or two, and make large bulk purchases to load into their car, it’s more common there to stop by a market every day or two on the way home from work or another errand, just to get a single light bag that is enough for the next couple meals. “Carrying home groceries” for a km or two is less of a chore if it’s not 25kg of groceries at a time.
I get the feeling that many Americans are under the illusion that most Europeans live in big cities like Paris or Amsterdam. And while it may be true that people in those cities have different shopping habits compared to Americans in similarly sized cities, that doesn’t reflect the reality for all - or even most - Europeans. For me and most of my friends, going to the supermarket once or twice a week by car has always been the norm.
Yeah, I can’t stomach our tap water, so having to buy drinking water adds to my grocery weight. I guess that’s also not normal for most Europeans.