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.

  • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
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    49 minutes ago

    The closest supermarket is 6km away. I either walk or cycle 1k to the bus stop or all the way by ebike. The way home is super steep, otherwise i would probably take the normal bike. It’s nice, because i can go all the way without touching an asphalt road.

  • cacti@ani.social
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    1 hour ago

    I’m not really a European but I’m close enough I guess (Turkish). The closest supermarket to me is less than a hundred meters away, with 3 others available in a 250m radius around my home.

    3km walk in this weather sounds like hell to be honest. You could use a grocery delivery service though if you have one available in your country.

  • Iron Lynx@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Even fairly rural Europeans will consider that to be at least cycling distance.

    I have four supermarkets in a radius of about 500 metres. Not only do I regularly walk, I pretty much buy only what I need for a few days, safe in the knowledge that if I need something now, I can be out & back in under half an hour, also knowing that most supermarkets here are reliably stocked with just what I need.

  • Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    My usual place is 250m from my home, or around 3 minutes walking. There’s like another 5 supermarkets, 5 bakeries, 4 greengrocers and 3 butchers about 500 meters away (off the top of my head, there could be more).

  • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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    7 hours ago

    500 meters. If the store were at 3km I’d bike there, not walk. I feel like 500m is still an okay walking distance, but at some point I regularly went to a store 800m away and I already preferred to bike there. Walking 3km is definitely a bit of a time investment

  • OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    In Norway. Technically in a city, but it’s very rural. About 30 minutes of walking with a descent of ~150 meters. Carrying groceries back up that hill is a big test of stamina, so we very rarely do it. We mostly drive to the store.

    Your friend is full of shit. 3km is a very long distance for walking to get groceries, and I can imagine that you have to deprioritize heavier groceries all the time due to that distance. I’d recommend getting a bike or electic scooter or something to cover that distance. Basically no one in Norway would have 3km to their nearest store with walking as their only option.

  • Luc@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Used to be 5km where I grew up in the Netherlands, nowadays living in Germany it’s 1km but uphill (don’t have those in NL!). In either case I don’t want to walk it and there’s not a chance I would if it’s 30 degrees out: that temperature means it’s probably in a month of the year where I burn within 10-20 minutes. I’d have to put on sunscreen for going to the store! They better have a sandy beach aisle

  • KarfiolosHus@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 hours ago

    Outskirts of Budapest, closest supermarket is bit more than 1.5 km, so I did my daily shopping when I walked the dog. I would guess 45 min round trip.

  • randombullet@programming.dev
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    7 hours ago

    My day to day shopping is 600-800m away.

    My specialty store is 1.1km.

    3km is a bit too far for me.

    The most I’ve ever willing walked for groceries is 1.5km

  • glorkon@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I live in Berlin. I can go shopping for groceries, head back home, cook a meal using those groceries and eat within one hour of home office lunch break.

  • Noobnarski@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    The closest grocery store/supermarket is around 1km away from my house and a few others are just slightly further away. I could walk there, but I have better ways to use my time, so I just go with my bike.

    The pannier bags also enable me to buy heavy stuff without having to lift it the whole way.