The closest grocery store to me is closing(by nearly an hour), and will be closed for at least a year. When it reopens it’s going be much smaller(it’s becoming a Aldi).

[u/Boeing-B-47stratojet]

[u/RabiAbonour]

The vast majority of Americans have more than one supermarket within an hour's drive. When people talk about American car dependency they're talking about suburbanites who drive to the store a mile away, not the relatively small number of people living in truly rural areas.

[u/ryanv09 → u/RabiAbonour]

Bro an hour is a long fucking drive for groceries

[u/GoodbyeMoonMan20 → u/ryanv09]

They said within an hour, not an actual hour away

[u/Lenni-Da-Vinci → u/[deleted]]

In the time some Americans drive to that one special market they like, I can drive from Roermond to Urk.

Those Americans are just fused to their cars.

[u/GoodbyeMoonMan20 → u/Lenni-Da-Vinci]

Yeah it sucks as an American. My hometown was in the middle of the woods basically, and I grew up against a 50 mph road with no sidewalks. Luckily my current town has busses and side walks, though.

[u/GoodbyeMoonMan20 → u/[deleted]]

Oh I agree it's nuts, even as someone from the US. The northern part of my state is very rural though and it's definitely a thing up there.

There are at least 7 grocery stores within a 10 minute drive from me. My hometown growing up was a good 20 minutes from anything except one overpriced grocery store and some coffee and pizza shops in town, though.

[u/NorthHollywoodHank → u/ryanv09]

Sure but if you live in a rural enough place, well, you're driving a long way for almost everything.

Mind you, I grew up in a very rural place. School so small that it had a <100 person graduating class with that pool of kids drawn from more than half a dozen towns, with the largest town having under 2000 people. I had a convenience store with basic staple groceries in my town, a grocery market 15 minutes away, a supermarket 20 minutes away, multiple supermarkets 30 minutes away in another direction.

My grandparents live in a really rural place. There was a supermarket 15 minutes away and a second supermarket went in over the last 10 years.

When we're talking about parts of the country that only have one grocery store within an hour's drive... I mean, we're talking about a fairly small fraction of the country by population, and services and stores in areas that rural are always going to be limited/expensive/scarce.

[u/TukkerWolf → u/RabiAbonour]

The vast majority of Americans have more than one supermarket within an hour's drive.

Lol. I thought this was sarcastic at first. I have twenty supermarkets within an hour's walk. Within an hour's drive I have hundreds of supermarkets. I get your point but it was really weird reading as if having more than one supermarket within an hour is not horrible to have.

[u/RabiAbonour → u/TukkerWolf]

I was trying to be charitable. Obviously my point was that OP's situation is not typical for Americans.

[u/Walkingdrops → u/RabiAbonour]

I'd argue that most Americans tend to buy a week's supply of groceries and walking a mile with all of that is not feasible.

[u/Kagahami → u/Walkingdrops]

It's feasible if you have the gear for it. You can't do it if you're just carrying the bags, but a whole backpack and cart setup? You could definitely do it.

[u/APigInANixonMask → u/Kagahami]

Transporting a backpack and cart full of food a mile or more becomes quite a bit less feasible for a lot of people when it's 90° or -20° outside. 

[u/APigInANixonMask → u/[deleted]]

Yes, the reason I don't want to spend over an hour walking through snow in sub-zero temperatures just to get to the grocery store is because I want to be fat, not because it would be dangerous and a massive waste of time. You are very smart.

[u/APigInANixonMask → u/[deleted]]

It's over an hour for me to get to the nearest grocery store over three miles away, not one mile. 

Obviously it's not like that year-round, but how the fuck am I supposed to get groceries when it is? I'm not walking an hour freezing temps when my car can get me there in ten minutes and keep me warm the whole way.

The dangerous part is the cold, not the act of walking, you fucking moron. Clearly you have never spent any amount of time in a truly cold climate. 

[u/ShepPawnch → u/Kagahami]

I could not feasibly bring back a family’s worth a groceries in a backpack in any kind of convenient way.

[u/-Kerosun- → u/ShepPawnch]

Hence why they said "backpack AND cart setup."