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Originally Posted by smoore
Yeah Stapleton and Lowry are so much like a movie set it's comical. The young hipsters with money seem to love it though. More power to 'em, shopping work and entertainment all within the neighborhood and all within 15 miles of downtown. Express buses and even *gasp* cab stands. It's a mixed use suburb where you could easily survive without a car. Most of 'em drive a lot but hey, we're American and cars define us.
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That's where I get into this kind of conflict. It's good intentions with poor real everyday actions. I think of it as the gym membership mentality. I'm a memer of the gym that I never go to, but because I'm a member, I feel a little better as opposed to not being a member. I have the option to go and I intend to go one day, but that day never comes. The proof will be in the pudding to see just how much these people actually live and work in the same space. As their job changes, so will their commute.
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I like the idea of economy of scale re: food and products. How do you shop in this sort of environment? Do you carry food home two bags at a time, use some sort of a cart, what? We moved down to the "big city" from the mountains because I saw the writing on the wall re: fuel prices. We still shop on a monthly basis with a buttload of groceries all at once out of habit. I do like being able to just bike to the store to get anything we want at the drop of a hat now, running out of milk in the mountains means you make do without it.
Although it's probably too late now what SHOULD have been done re: getting goods into the city was trains. Trains are great for that sort of thing but there isn't anywhere to put them in most metros now.
I hate OJ and understand where you're coming from about out of season produce. That should self regulate as fuel continues to climb. That's certainly a huge price increase you've seen on your 1/2 gal container in the past 5 years.
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When I lived in Queens, I used to have a folding cart similar to this one:
It was not all that effective when I was on my way home so I only used it on the weekends with planned market trips. But normally I carry about 5-8 plastic bags home from a shopping trip. They can be heavy when buying soda or bottled water (old pipes in the building sometimes have rusty sediment and brita filters need to be replaced too often making it too expensive.) Normally, I end up going to the market many times during the week, 2-3 times sometimes @ (about $10-$20 per trip) of course when we are most active in the city we are eating out so I don't shop sometimes for weeks at a stretch. We travelled the past few weekends, Tampa, Houston, and Chicago and had busy weeknights. This was the first market shopping for us in about 2 weeks.
It also makes me more aware of what I'm buying and why. I buy sales for items I know that aren't perishable and make sense. Bottled tomato sauces, canned soups, etc. make sense to buy them when they are on sale instead of full price. Am I really going to eat that frozen pot pie this week just because it's on sale? Probably not so it doesn't get purchased.
I found that when I used the cart, I tended to overshop than when I didn't use the cart. So I now don't have one, and I don't use a shopping cart in the store. I carry what I want to purchase and once my hands are full, I'm ready to leave the store. If I must purchase those small items for sales like this morning, 5 yogurts for a $3, then I use the small hand baskets.
This works for us and our lifestyle, you've got growing kids, I can't imagine you doing something like this, but I do know my Icelandic friends with kids go to the grocery store on the way home almost every night to get the final items like fresh vegatables, cheese, and bread.
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