Europeans, how far do you walk for groceries?
Europeans, how far do you walk for groceries?
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.
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
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.
That's cycling distance. A nice bike ride to pickup shopping.
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.
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.
I'm in Vienna, Austria. I have 5 supermarkets and 3 pharmacys in a 10 minute walking radius.
My closest supermarket is 400m away, and the next supermarket over is 1.1km. I walk there daily, sometimes multiple times a day. 3km is quite far and I would not consider that walking distance.
It's certainly possible to walk that distance once every (couple of) months, if I did not have my bike available for whatever reason? But I would consider regularly walking 40 minutes one way every other day to be far too much. That distance is cycling distance, not walking distance.
On a side-note. Did you just say that the bus arrives only once every four hours? My lord.. It might as well basically not exist at that point.
1km, 12 minutes walking
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.
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).
400m, or 500 in the other direction.
BUT: no one around here would walk 3km. Hell, most people won't even walk the 500m.
I live in the pedestrian zone of a semi large German city. There's three grocery stores within pissing distance.
My last flat was a little more remote in comparison but still nowhere near 3km to the next store. I wouldn't be willing to walk that far for groceries tbh. I enjoy taking walks but not with a shitload of food I have to haul all the way home. That's a cycling or public transport route for me.
If I was you I'd take a large hiking backpack or rolling suitcase, walk to the store an hour ahead and then ride the bus back home.
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
About 1km one-way. I usually walk
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
6km, I drive ..
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.
3 Km is what? A half hour walk? I've lived in multiple European countries in my life and never been that far from a supermarket.
I mean, I definitely have walked that much daily. My longest walk to work I can remember was maybe 40 minutes. In some places where I'd take public transportation for like 20-30 min I've walked for an hour when I felt like it instead.
For groceries I don't think I'd take that with me that far walking unless it could go in my backpack. But seriously, if you don't have a shop in that radius around you in Europe you need a car anyway because you're out in the middle of nowhere.
But also, in European supermarkets you can normally get big grocery hauls delivered that far away. Just go there, buy your stuff, pay, book a delivery. Lots of old people who can't carry heavy weights do it. They still go to the shop, though.
We have two supermarkets within five minutes walking distance, if you make it ten minutes, it's four.
Also within ten minutes walking distance are two middle schools, a primary school, and two kindergardens, several doctors and apothecaries, several shops, and the central bus station.
The latter is a bit of an disappointment, as not only the bus service is low frequency, and it takes an hour+ to the city.
I have a small shop with basics and a seasonal farm stand about 400 meters from me and I walk that for anything I need from there, or another larger but still small shop another 300m past the first one. But selection is limited.
There's a gross supermarket about 2km away, and I wouldn't object to walking that, but I don't think I ever have. In the same amount of time I could drive 4km to the good supermarket or large green market and get better products. I regularly go for 5-7km runs, often past the gross supermarket, so it's more so that if I need something from a supermarket, I would rather do a full shopping trip, or stop at the store or market on the way home from work.
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.
3km is kinda far, even with a bicycle, I have a small shop down the stairs and a medium supermarket at 5 min walk
I live out in the countryside. The nearest store is about 2.8km away. Put on some good music, get an ice cream for the second half of the trip, it's a lovely walk. I could catch a bus back, there's a stop right by the shop, but my timing is generally shite. If I'd be halfway home by the time the bus comes, I'd rather just walk.
The closest one to me is about 1km, I walk there if I don't have to get too much stuff. 3km? I don't know. In nice weather maybe, if I'm not in a hurry.
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.
My day to day walking to grocery stores is something like one kilometer. Bus goes every ten or fifteen minutes near my home. I don’t like biking that’s why I decided to walk. Every now and then I walk to the city, which is 5 km from my home, I don’t think it’s too far, but if I go to shopping there I usually come back with a bus.
When I was in a similar situation, I wish I thought of “one way”. I realized after the fact that many people were walking one way to the store but taking a taxi back with their load of groceries. However I have no idea whether it was actually affordable or if that was their only choice.
You should look into that. How affordable is a taxi if you only take it one direction?
200 meters
I bike (more carrying capacity) about 9km each direction. (Belgium to Germany, funnily enough.) That being said, not wanting to do so under the burning sun is absolutely valid.
One more opinion: 3km is definitely too far for groceries, that's driving distance. It's half an hour walking each way, the return loaded with bags? Forget about it.
I live on the edge of a small-ish town and it takes me 15 min to the nearest supermarket, and that's quite a lot, everyone on this streets bikes there, in about 5 min. From there towards the center you don't need to walk more than 5 min to get groceries.
I'd say having to walk more than a 10 minutes for groceries already affects the apartment value.
Eastern part of Germany here. The closest grocery stores are about 2,5km away from my home, but we live a little more rural than most of the people in the thread. I don't walk that distance for groceries, because they don't allow dogs in, but one of the supermarkets has a DIY store right next to it, and I do walk there to get smaller items and have a nice walk with my doggo.
If I walked 3km in any direction I would pass probably 8-10 grocery stores on the way. But I live in the middle of a small European city. I walk probably 300meters to the nearest one though.
Aussie, but the strip with a butcher, grocer and IGA is about 60m away, if i want more supermarkety goods i'll hop on my pushbike or walk the 1.4km to Europa
Got four different shops within ~500m.
I don't have to walk more that 10 minutes to a "grocery store" where I live (which is kind of in between rural and urban) but occasionally I might walk 3+ km and back to somewhere with a better selection, take a backpack, that's not an unreasonable walk to me. If I had to do it every day I might complain.
People in this thread seems to live near big cities, which isn't really representative of the whole european population.
I live in rural france, the closest grocery store since I was born is 20km away (20min drive, no bus), and I moved 3 times - still about 20km.
Lots of people I know would love a store to be 3km away
I live in a very small town, the closest one is 300m, it's a rather small grocery store good enough for daily stuff. Once a week or two I take the car to a bigger store 10km away for stuff that I can't find in the small store or is cheaper there.
I draw the line of the unladen (not for leisure) walking distance at 25 minutes. That can be reevaluated in case of necessity.
50 meters
Nearest grocery store is 100m away. Nearest supermarket is 850m (just cheched). I walked to the supermarket moments ago, bought grocery and brought it back all in less than 1 hour. I wouldn't do it with 30 degrees in the middle of the day though. If there were no sidewalks and I had to make a 6km round trip to get groceries, I would invest in the cheapest electric bike possible.
I recently moved somewhere a little further from the shops. I can take the bus part of the way but still need to walk around 1km each way, so I've invested in a Clax trolley to carry my groceries.
If I was in your situation, I would buy a light, foldable cart, take the bus to the shops, and walk home.
Around 2.2km at the moment, according to google maps :3
Most places I lived before were significantly closer to the store tho.. 3km is still walking distance for groceries I'd say, but anything further than that and I'd definitely be considering a different transport method, just cause of the bags
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180m to the nearest small supermarket which has a satisfactory selection
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450m-650m to three normal-sized supermarkets which have everything I need in daily life
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1km to a mall which has everything I could ever ask for in life
Yes, I live in the city.
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I'd ask your friend if they walk 3k to the market, and if the answer is no, tell them to STFU.
the walk is good for your though. You can feel like a badass for doing it, but complaining kind of weakens that.
About 500m or, if I want to go to a larger supermarket, about 2km.
Netherlands, Rotterdam. 4 supermarkets within walking distance. 1 less than 10 minutes, 3 less than 5.
Vilnius, Lithuania. 3 different shops 5 min walk from home. And its not even high density urban area. I shop almost every day
American here... 3km is just under 2 miles, so you're looking at a 4 mile walk just to get to the grocery store and back?
I wouldn't walk that, mostly because bringing the groceries back is the problem. Maybe if you had a wagon or a cart or something.
Closest grocery to me is 1.77km, I wouldn't walk that either. No sidewalks all the way so you'd be feet away from vehicle traffic, and coming home with groceries would be up-hill. No thank you.
My nearest store is about 3km away and I will usually walk there unless I'm picking up anything especially heavy or bulky.
Not European, but most people in my city would say "3 minutes" as they'd live directly above a mall. I live somewhere quieter, so it's about 12 minutes for me to the closest supermarket, and 4 more if I want to go for cheaper groceries, hella restaurants and food stalls, and boba.
When I was staying in Berlin, the closest Lidl was a 15-minute walk away.
Not european but 2km to the nearest grocery store with fewer selection, 3.8km to the nearest town with better selection. The caveat here is i moved into a rather new residential area and it's in the middle of nowhere. Before this the grocery store is 3min walk, and the furthest part of the residential area is still 1km away from the nearest grocery store.
I wouldn't walk 3km though, that is still 30min to 40min walk one way. Cycling is better.
The closest small one is about 1 km, a reasonably sized one for stocking up is 5 km or so. I have never walked to either in 5+ years of living here. Even the closer one is like a 10 minute walk (ish), and then I would have to carry back what I bought, which also means I can barely buy anything. 5 km is more like an hour by foot one way, so that's just not happening, ever.
I usually take my bike to the closer one, or the cargo bike to the bigger one. I also pass by the smaller one on the way home from work (I commute by bike). The fact that I own bikes is why there's never any rain to walk anywhere, basically. Additionally, there is very little sense in taking a (relatively small capacity) bike to a big store when a cargo bike is available. I also don't own a car. I don't know a single person who would regularly walk 1 km+ for shopping, but I also don't know anyone who doesn't own any form of personal transport. Most would usually take a bike, and take a car for bigger or heavier trips.
Taking a bus or tram/train for grocery shopping does happen for some, but highly depends on the local situation and town or city layout if that can bring useful time savings. Unless you live is the middle of nowhere, bus and train schedules are anywhere from every 10 to 30 minutes or so, more frequent in dense areas where there's multiple lines.
Edit: for context, I live on the outskirts of a medium sized city (250k inhabitants), but my town only has 3500 or so. The small supermarket is on the literal other side of that town, the bigger one is one town over (opposite direction of city). Distance to the city is also only only 10 km or so (to the center), but there happen to be no "attractive" supermarkets in that direction for me.
From Serbia, I have a supermarket about 200m from my apartment and a mall with a huge supermarket about 20 mins away on foot. In my city at least, you're rarely more than 15 mins away by foot from a supermarket, they're everywhere.
Hunter-gatherers used to forage in a radius up to 10k 😁
I have a neighbourhood small shop at 5 min from me. But I usually go to bigger ones 30 min or a bit more so I can get some exercise and enjoy nature and fresh air.
900m. I live at the edge of town...
3 km sounds like too much to me. I don't think most people here would walk that far to do their shopping, especially in 30°C heat, mostly because we usually have small supermarkets all around.
I currently walk 500 m to my small neighbourhood supermarket when I just need to buy a few things and I don't recall ever living further away from some small supermaket. When I am running out of provisions, I take my car and go to a big hypermarket 7 km away. There are other hypermarkets closer by, even within walking distance (2.3 km), but that farther one is the one I like for doing a big shopping.
Of course, distance isn't the only factor. It's not the same 500 m in London or Amsterdam which are mostly flat than in the city where I live now, where the 500 m to my supermarket have gradients of up to 15 %.
I've lived in different places here, currently I have a couple of options in a 400m radius, in my previous house I used to have two options in a 100m radius. Before that I lived in another country and had a small market at around 600m and the nearest supermarket was at 1.5km, I almost never went to the big one and instead had them deliver to my house, but it wasn't a chore going there, it was just boring and a waste of time when I could just order online.
A few years back I used to live in a small city and my options were 1km for a small market or 3km for a big one, you sort of get used to going the 3km to the big one when needed, but it's not fun, and I would consistently put out going to the big one until it was absolutely necessary. I believe 3km is bike distance, sure you can walk that much, it's not that far away, but it takes a long time and is exhausting carrying lots of groceries in summer for that long.
All of that being said, I was not born in Europe, so locals might have different opinions, although I think everyone I've talked to thinks that above 1km it becomes bike/scooter distance for routine things (you don't need a bike if you're going to the cinema at 1km, but grocery or other routine stuff it's worth the investment just on the time you'll save)
I have a grocery store in the first floor of the building, so just an elevator down and up. One supermarket in each direction 550 and 650 meters. But I live in the city centre, so that is a privilege most people do not have.
Depends on what I want (availability in the shop).
But anything is in a range of about 6km in every direction and reachable by bike.
Got a Lidl, Aldi, Edeka Center, Rewe, Kaufland in my range.
All of mid size.Depending on the weight I am willing to carry the groceries (if they don't need cooling).
But that depends on how much time I have and if I am in the mood.80 meters lol. I've lived in cities, where it's always been less than 700 meters.
210m for the medium sized store, 650 for the farther store. I wouldn't walk more than that, its either car or bus for bigger ones.
I have 5 supermarkets to choose from within a 10 min walking distance
If it is more than 1 km, I bike. Not that it is too much to walk but it is too much to carry heavy bags.
The nearest to me is super run down and gross with people doing drugs in the parking lot, and its 2.7km from me. Instead I end up going to a nice one in a different part of town just over 9km away. Obviously driving is the only option for either.
Nearest store 8 min walk. The one i perfer, 20 min biking and 10km away. Living on the countryside
500 meters to the more expensive one in my small "sister" village, and around 3km to the bigger ones in the main village (where I buy bulk every few weeks using the car).
500m to the cheap one and 750m to the one with the bigger selection. I walk or bike there. 3km would be too much for me i think. I would take the bus or train as i don’t have a car either, but doesn’t sound like fun.
About 1,5 km for daily things and for more i take the bike vor public transport
I'm in the glorious position that I have to cross the road once to get to the baker that is a supermarket too, another road crossing and I'm at the butcher. From my door to the bakery, to the butcher and back home... 200m.
The next Aldi, Tedi and REWE is about a kilometer away.
I’m in the US (and in FL no less so it’s routinely 30-38C/80-100F). I moved to my specific house, among other reasons, because it’s about 250M/a quarter mile from a grocery store. I walk there 2x/week and carry back on average about 10kg/20-25 lbs of groceries. Lots of others in my neighborhood do the same, but most of Florida is not built for walking which is incredibly disappointing.
The nearest store is about 200 m away, or about 30–40 seconds away by bike. 🤷♂️
3 km is quite the distance to carry a big load of groceries in 30°C weather, yes indeed. That's not being lazy.
Europeans
Huge diversity.
I have 1km and there are 3 different supermarkets, and I go there either by car or by bicycle.
Friends who live in Sweden have 10km to the nearest supermarket and then 50 km to the next one.
Usually walk once a week to a grocery store 2.25 km away to stock up, but I'll supplement that with a trip every other day to the smaller grocery store 0.5 km away. I don't own a car and walk/scooter most places and I'd say that's a decent trek. I mostly walk it instead of taking my scooter because I go with my girlfriend and we'll talk, also can carry more back, and it gets us our steps which we like to track.
If it was just me and it was 30C I'd probably just take my scooter or the bus which is decent for getting there most times.
I live in Los Angeles and just happen to have a grocery store within easy walking distance. Like 0.5 km. But I don't, because the old nice little convenience store got turned into stupid Whole Foods. Or Mold Foods, as we started calling it after trying some of their groceries. Now I drive a mile to where I can get fresher produce and dairy, and paper towels that don't disintegrate with the first touch of liquid. Or we get our groceries delivered.
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 am in the states, my only non-Walmart grocery store is 0.5km and before my bike was stolen I used to ride there for groceries quite often. I rarely walk it, but I also hike ~9km a day with my dog.
I am in New Mexico and our temps are more like 36-39c. I am trying to get out of my truck more.
I have several grocery stores of different chains in my vicinity, in a 3km radius I could probably choose between 10+ locations (I just checked after posting: There are at least 18 grocery stores within that range and some options like farmer markets not listed). I only go to the closest ones (~500m) by foot, for most things further away I take my bike.
About 10 to 15 minutes walk depending on where you want to shop
700m for one and 1000 for another one. I ususally choose just based in my mood. They are basically the same
About 60m. 30 if I cut across the courtyard. It almost takes me longer taking the stairs down from 4th than walking the rest of the way.
In your situation I would probably order my weekly groceries online, if that was an option. I would still visit the grocery store occasionally, in which case I would walk and/or go by bus. Well, in reality I would probably own a bike, but that also depends on your infrastructure over there. I’ve never lived that far from the nearest grocery store, though. There are many options here within that radius, the nearest ones being basically next door.
I have shop few meters away from my home, but I only go there, when I forgot to buy something or just quickly need snacks for a movie or it's bad weather, but usually I just buy everything from other grocery store which is 2 km away, but I like their food selection more and they got cheaper prices. Sometimes I also walk to big supermarket which is 4 km away.
3 km doesn't seem much for me or most of my friends,some of them even own a car and still walk 2-4 km to the grocery shop, instead of driving, but some people I know, would rather drive a car or take a bus.
I'm American. I regularly walk to the shop that's 1.75 km, won't drive it because it's too close.
The closest Real Grocery is 2.5km, that I take electric bike. Same for the Whole Foods that's much farther (5.5km) but that I consider an adventure ride and certainly not a walk. The groceries would melt by the time I got home if I walked.
All of these my husband drives to, and I think that's more typical. I have hangups about driving short distances.
I have a bunch of medium and small shops very close to my house, a market, and a few supermarkets about 30-40 minutes away.
Depends how many you're shopping for. My nearest supermarket is about a kilometre away and if I'm going there I'll always walk. That's a grand distance even with a heavy shop.
I'd do 3 if I was just buying for myself but it's at the upper limit depending on weight, especially in 30C (I presume dry heat because fuck that shit otherwise).
3km is kinda far, even with a bicycle, I have a small shop down the stairs and a medium supermarket at 5 min walk
500 meters give or take.
1600 metres, but I’m not walking to do the weekly shop. Or 900 metres if I want to pay extortionate amounts of money for probably out of date items.
In a 300-meter radius I have two large stores that I visit often, one super large 1 km away, and lots of small ones. Plus there are plenty of fast-food places all around. If I'm cooking something and realize I don't have an ingredient it takes like 7 minutes on foot to get it and be back in my kitchen. So I have never felt the need to have a car.
It is 2.4km to my nearest shop (and most of that to reach a bus stop, as it happens). I have walked there from time to time, but I wouldn't do an actual grocery shop there anyway: we have the weekly groceries delivered.
I have brought a full grocery shop home in a large rucksack that kind of distance, and more, in the past when on holiday, but I wouldn't want to do it regularly.
I have also known a couple of other people who do that kind of distance with a huge rucksack for a monthly top up of specific things that their local shops don't carry, but they are both weird in several ways other ways. Good weird, but still weird. This is not something that the majority of people that I have known would even consider.