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Re:Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major... by ghc on Tuesday June 04, 2019 @10:06AM (#20095144)
I think maybe urban stores might skew the stats a bit. There's so much demand for groceries within a short walk of all the local condo buildings that my local Walgreens has set up a fresh sushi counter. The cheaper, giant grocery stores are all located in low income areas where land is cheap, but there's 8 CVS, 5 7-Eleven, and 2 Walgreens within a quarter mile walk of where I live and work.

So when I run out of flour, I have a decision to make: would I rather sit in traffic for 30 minutes, wait for instacart/amazon fresh delivery, or go to CVS/Walgreens? I suspect there are many people like me who pay the markup every day because it's less of a hassle.

Re:Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major... by ryacko on Tuesday June 04, 2019 @02:38PM (#20097919)
Most fresh sushi counters are operated by an LLC unrelated to the supermarket, and a baffling percentage goes unsold throughout the day.
Re:Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major... by Blackthorn on Tuesday June 04, 2019 @01:07PM (#20096992)
Do people not just add it to the grocery list when they run out and pick it up during their usual (bi)weekly grocery shopping trip?
Re:Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major... by ghc on Tuesday June 04, 2019 @02:33PM (#20097886)
I remember the weekly shopping cadence growing up in a relatively rural new england town, but there was still always the inevitable "milk run" when you ran out of something unexpectedly. With smallish high rise condos it's hard to store a lot of food (kitchen designers assume you don't need a pantry or full size freezer for some reason).

Another factor is that in this age of instant gratification if I were to buy a week's worth of perishables items would go bad because it's so easy to have a shitty day and say screw it, let's go out, get takeout or get delivery (369 restaurants will deliver to me via uber eats) instead of cooking.

Not saying that it's a healthy way to live, but it's become a strong pull over the 10 years since I've made the transition to fully urbanized life. The way we cope, especially after having a baby, is to shop at the local butchers, bakers and markets for fresh stuff every few days and order delivery of heavy bulk goods periodically.

Accidentally running out of flour, coffee filters, half and half, etc., is probably an inevitable side effect.

Re:Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major... by asdff on Tuesday June 04, 2019 @01:55PM (#20097522)
If it can wait