I've lived extensively in most population densities available in the US. When you are in a very dense environment like Manhattan, people simply don't buy quantities that large from local stores, and the vast majority of apartments don't have the storage space to accommodate for the giant sized quantities that suburbanites buy at Costco every day. The end result is that living in Manhattan, Brooklyn, western Queens etc., you're basically walking every day down to local stores and lugging relatively small bags back. People in the city tend to be pretty trim and fit as a result.

I currently live in a rural-density zoned part of the US, and the car is basically the only access one has to virtually anything. Businesses here can pretty confidently state that close to 100% of their customer base arrives by car.

I bought four gallons of milk at my last shopping trip, this will last my family a week or so. I also bought five dozen eggs which might last two weeks. Perhaps the reason people in high-density areas shop in smaller quantities is partly that high-density areas price out families like mine who would be shopping every day without the ability to efficiently buy in larger quantities.

In the city you could just buy food as you needed it. Your kids could get a gallon of milk at the store in the morning and chug it on the way to school. Same for the eggs. You would just pop over to the egg man who would quickly prepare you a 8 egg omelette and side order of quiche.

When you have more than a couple people in a house, this would mean shopping continuously. And the quantities you'd need for a single day would be more than you could carry effectively without a trunk. (I moved to where I am from a dense city with transit too, it makes more sense for me to be in a smaller city where my kids have a yard to play in and space to plant a garden than to live in a dense urban environment)

In this case I would suggest trying out grocery delivery services like Ocado in the UK.

>> You would just pop over to the egg man

His name was Yauch.

and how much all that will cost vs buying in bulk.

this is incorrect. A significant proportion of high density environments include people living well below the poverty line. In New York City, they shop at places called "bodegas". They often have access to public assistance like food stamps, but they are otherwise consuming those products at "high density" prices. They dont buy in large quantities for financial reasons but also for the "high density makes quantity buying largely impractical" reasons I mentioned above.

doable with a cargo bike as well fwiw;

I myself am doing fine with one or two backpacks a week (on the way home by bike). 2-3km distance to supermarket

When I was living 200m away from a supermarket, I used to buy spontaneously when I wanted to cook something

You save a lot of money buying those larger quantities.

Depends. Meat, maybe.

Toilet paper? Doubtful. You are paying mortgage + property tax on the pantry space used to store it.

Not to mention gas to drive and get it. And vehicle insurance. And car maintenance.

A bidet seat (heated water, $150 at Home Depot now days) has a better ROI.

> You are paying mortgage + property tax on the pantry space used to store it.

If you have the space anyway, you're not paying any extra to store stuff in it. And it's expensive enough to move that it's not economical to do so just to have the lower payments from 1 fewer square foot.

> Not to mention gas to drive and get it. And vehicle insurance. And car maintenance.

If you stop at the store on the way home from somewhere else that you were going anyway, the additional cost of those things is basically zero.

The alternative is living in an area where you don't have to drive everywhere to get things.

I drive maybe 200 miles a month now. I walk down the street to a supermarket to get toilet paper when I run out.

> I drive maybe 200 miles a month now.

But still pay full insurance presumably?

I've been fighting this with the insurance company ever since the pandemic started. We no longer drive anywhere daily, working from home. But the insurance company wants to maximize profit so they won't approve less than 6000 miles per year, a number they made up, and keep raising prices.

I barely drove 6000 miles a year pre pandemic while living in the suburbs!

> $150 at Home Depot

Good luck with that. Even with an off-brand, you're looking at much closer to twice that if you want any kind of heated water.

Home Depot actually has their own feature reduced SKUs from popular brands.

But checking prices, they are around $250.

You save a lot of money by not owning cars.

Only if you don't value your time. Either you're paying even more for taxis and rideshares than you would to own your car, or you're spending an hour on trips that would take 10 minutes by car.

I think it's actually faster to get to central London from me on the tube than by car, not even counting looking for parking. And hell, on the tube I can read, listen to a podcast, code, or even call family. Can't do most of that in a car.

Yeah, but you can't easily store it in high density areas where square footage is expensive. Personally, I think this is a significant negative for city living, and a reason why I prefer the suburbs.

And then you end up in a potential lock down situation where you're easily corralled and starved out ala Shanghai

Living in European town -- no one wants to buy huge quantities in the first place -- gotta store them somewhere and make sure they're not spoiled yet, why bother if there's always a shop downstairs that does pretty much that. Just buy what you need for tonight (or for a week if you're a hoarder).

Exactly - the odds that a black swan event causes massive supply chain disruptions so you can't buy groceries is slim, so there's no need to worry about having emergency supplies. It's foolproof.

Indeed, GP's comment made me chuckle, it hasn't been long enough since the start of the pandemic to take "a week if you are a hoarder" comments seriously.

I just use my car sharing access once every four months to buy non-perishables. No big deal.

It looked to me that some of the COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions actually resulted from hoarder-type public that went to replenish their own emergency supplies all at the same time.

The article is probably sponsored by some real eastate developer group who wants all those pesky parking requirements gone, so they can build 1k unit buildings with very few parking spaces allocated.

A developer would only build a parking-free building if there are people in the area who want to live without cars. Otherwise it would be a financial disaster for them.

Not true. Kyiv, Ukraine keeps building skyscrapers with almost 0 parking in it (althoug there are dedicated parking buildings within about 10-15 minute walk, not as convenient). And everyone hates it that way. People keep complaining. Developers keep building.

As one developer told me -- that simply financially makes more sense for them to build an apartment instead of parking. Why should they solve other people's business?

At first I was outraged, but now I kinda see a long term benefits of that, even thought it's harder for me to own a car. Hopefully that'd lead to improvement of public transportation or invention of new ways to move.

Not sure about Kyiv, but here in Vilnius the elephant in the room is parking enforcement. Illegal parking under no-parking signs, blocking sidestreets by leaving minimal space to pass, on the grass, in basketball courts, playgrounds... Municipality doesn't give a fuck. People don't buy parking spots since hey, free parking out in the street! And developers build little parking since nobody buys. But everybody still drives and surroundings are a mess.

Sounds like there's no other choice in Kyiv. In any US city there are hundreds of buildings with parking that people could choose to live in if that's what they want.

Same thing in Moscow, Russia. 25-story apartment buildings with little to no parking.

People live like ants.

Hence why the push for car free cities.

That could be a blessing in disguise if it leads to less cars.

Many Aucklanders would be very happy if developers built thousands of units without parking.

Only in suburban America are those sizes conceivable.

Yep, it is one of the many upsides of living in suburban America.