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I live in a new urbanism development - still being developed, but over 4000 homes built so far. Once the nearest town center to my house is complete, I'll be able to walk 3 blocks to groceries, restaurants, and other shops. Also a gym. Light rail will come through the development in about 5 years, connecting it to the rest of the city.
I work from home most of the time, live near work when I need to go into the office, and recently bought a Prius when I needed a new car that could haul kids. Right now I burn through about 10 gallons of gas every 4 - 6 weeks, so not too bad. I don't know how people fill up once a week for $75. What a total waste of your money.
I also live in a similar development. Its called the 100 year old streetcar suburb. Eight miles from downtown Chicago with subway, bus, and commuter rail access. Right now I live on the extreme edge of town so its a two mile drive everyday to the commuter rail station. I probably should ride a bike, but I'm lazy. We do almost all of our shopping within town, so our only big trips are into the city of Chicago for recreation.
You seem to be forgetting 1 major thing, even with the high cost of operating an automobile, it would still be cheaper to drive 30 minutes or an hour to walmart and buy a weeks worth of groceries than to walk 5 minutes and buy them from a local grocer or mom and pop store, thats how cheap walmart is
Real cute with the wal-fart though, i take it your one of those liberal hippies who think big bad fortune 500 is going to ruin this country and we should all buy stuff that says made in america and from the local shop, just out of principle of supporting the little guy and our own country right?
i say **** the little guy. its a dog eat dog world, welcome to the free market. Walmart can flex its muscles and it has every right to do so
even with the high cost of operating an automobile, it would still be cheaper to drive 30 minutes or an hour to walmart and buy a weeks worth of groceries than to walk 5 minutes and buy them from a local grocer or mom and pop store
I don't think that has to be the tradeoff, though. Wal-Mart itself has been experimenting with multi-level urban stores in dense areas. And oddly enough, the very first Walton's Five and Dime (Wal-Mart's precursor) was located in a very walkable part of downtown Bentonville, Arkansas.
As I recall, the Safeway corporation built a store not long ago right in downtown Portland, as part of a mixed-use development. It is actually the bottom two floors of an apartment tower, along with a small parking garage. It's a very profitable store now, since people from anywhere in the downtown area can ride the streetcar right up to the store's entrance.
You seem to be forgetting 1 major thing, even with the high cost of operating an automobile, it would still be cheaper to drive 30 minutes or an hour to walmart and buy a weeks worth of groceries than to walk 5 minutes and buy them from a local grocer or mom and pop store, thats how cheap walmart is
Real cute with the wal-fart though, i take it your one of those liberal hippies who think big bad fortune 500 is going to ruin this country and we should all buy stuff that says made in america and from the local shop, just out of principle of supporting the little guy and our own country right?
i say **** the little guy. its a dog eat dog world, welcome to the free market. Walmart can flex its muscles and it has every right to do so
I have a WalMart about 2 mi. from my house, but I don't generally shop there. For groceries, the produce and meat sucks. There's a reason why it's cheap. And in the past, I bought too many other things from WM that turned out to be crap that broke in 6 months (alarm clock, fan, mixer) so it ended up being more expensive because I had to go somewhere else to replace their crap with a quality item. And then it just has a crappy atmosphere I don't care for. And yes, I'd rather spend more money on "made in America" than crap made overseas.
I also live in a similar development. Its called the 100 year old streetcar suburb. Eight miles from downtown Chicago with subway, bus, and commuter rail access. Right now I live on the extreme edge of town so its a two mile drive everyday to the commuter rail station. I probably should ride a bike, but I'm lazy. We do almost all of our shopping within town, so our only big trips are into the city of Chicago for recreation.
Sounds great. Denver has old streetcar suburbs too, sans the streecars. They're talking about bringing back the streetcars, but they're all serviced well by buses. New urbanism isn't new - it's just building they way the used to.
I have a WalMart about 2 mi. from my house, but I don't generally shop there. For groceries, the produce and meat sucks. There's a reason why it's cheap. And in the past, I bought too many other things from WM that turned out to be crap that broke in 6 months (alarm clock, fan, mixer) so it ended up being more expensive because I had to go somewhere else to replace their crap with a quality item. And then it just has a crappy atmosphere I don't care for. And yes, I'd rather spend more money on "made in America" than crap made overseas.
I have only been to Walmart twice so I will assume, for the sake of argument, that you are correct, more or less.
But that brings some questions that perhaps you can answer:
Are you and others saying that Walmart sells all the Made In China crap, but the few remaining Mom & Pop stores do not? Are the Mom & Pop stores selling no Chinese goods or goods from other countries? Only Made in the USA goods?
Please answer this in full. Its not an attempt at a row but rather a very serious question. Thanks.
I have only been to Walmart twice so I will assume, for the sake of argument, that you are correct, more or less.
But that brings some questions that perhaps you can answer:
Are you and others saying that Walmart sells all the Made In China crap, but the few remaining Mom & Pop stores do not? Are the Mom & Pop stores selling no Chinese goods or goods from other countries? Only Made in the USA goods?
Please answer this in full. Its not an attempt at a row but rather a very serious question. Thanks.
Well, there is the conundrum. I would like to support a mom and pop store (and I do shop at a family owned Korean market, but I do have to drive there), but lets face it......if the mom and pop stores are going to compete with Wal Marts and national grocery store chains, then yeah --- they will have to stock cheap crap. On the other end of the spectrum, there are stores that only sell organic and locally made items and they are prohibitively expensive, for this middle class family anyway. There is no real middle option, and that is frustrating from a consumers point of view. I would pay more for locally grown produce and made in the USA, but I cannot pay twice as much for a gallon of organic milk then I would of Dillons grocery store milk......anymore it seems shopping green is a rich persons game, not middle class and certainlly not poor.
Are you all kidding? If you could get by without a car, but shop at "mom and pop" places, of course it would be cheaper than Wal-Mart. Cars are MONEY PITS. 5,000-7,000 a year in total cost of ownership, not including gasoline or other fuels. Can you save 5,000 dollars at Wal-Mart every year? I don't think so.
Big Box stores only work because of one reason- cheap gas and people with cars. Take the cheap gas away and they start to look less and less good. If anything Big Box stores of the future may redeem themselves- by becomming warehouses for local deliveries. One British environmentalist and climatologist has suggested as much- it would be more fuel efficient to put in an order with a big box store and have a van deliver your goods the same or next day, than to have you drive your car in gridlocked traffic to get to the store and pick up whatever you are going to buy.
Are you all kidding? If you could get by without a car, but shop at "mom and pop" places, of course it would be cheaper than Wal-Mart. Cars are MONEY PITS. 5,000-7,000 a year in total cost of ownership, not including gasoline or other fuels. Can you save 5,000 dollars at Wal-Mart every year? I don't think so.
Big Box stores only work because of one reason- cheap gas and people with cars. Take the cheap gas away and they start to look less and less good. If anything Big Box stores of the future may redeem themselves- by becomming warehouses for local deliveries. One British environmentalist and climatologist has suggested as much- it would be more fuel efficient to put in an order with a big box store and have a van deliver your goods the same or next day, than to have you drive your car in gridlocked traffic to get to the store and pick up whatever you are going to buy.
no kidding. everyone seems to forget that every day their car sits in existence it is losing value. the cost for me to "get where I need to go" for a whole year is $900 - what some people are spending in one month for their car. So, basically if I was spending $100 a week at walmart, and $900 a month for a car (car payment, insurance, gas, everything), that would be $15,600 a year for cheap groceries and an easy 30 minute drive. But if I'm spending $900 A YEAR for transit (be it buses, trains, bikes or feet), and $200 a week at a mom and pop store, that comes to about $10,500. Oh, look, I've saved $5,000 just by not having a car at all.
I still have not figured out the "drive 30 minutes to walmart is cheaper than walking down the block" argument. (I know all about you that can't just walk down the block to the store. I'm just presenting pure numbers here.)
You seem to be forgetting 1 major thing, even with the high cost of operating an automobile, it would still be cheaper to drive 30 minutes or an hour to walmart and buy a weeks worth of groceries than to walk 5 minutes and buy them from a local grocer or mom and pop store, thats how cheap walmart is
Real cute with the wal-fart though, i take it your one of those liberal hippies who think big bad fortune 500 is going to ruin this country and we should all buy stuff that says made in america and from the local shop, just out of principle of supporting the little guy and our own country right?
i say **** the little guy. its a dog eat dog world, welcome to the free market. Walmart can flex its muscles and it has every right to do so
***Me, a liberal hippie? Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That's a good one.
Yes, I despise Globalism and what it has done to our manufacturing base and major industries. Free market nothing. They've created laws and rules that make it virtually impossible for our businesses to compete with the garbage being shipped in from 3rd world countries.
And the latest? Colt Firearms is being told by some members of Congress that their M4 Carbine is no longer adequate for the American troops. Some idiot from OK is pushing for a Kraut company to manufacture our guns. And how about this administration choosing a foreign company like Airbus over Boeing for the Tanker contract? This is a stinking joke. We never could have won a world war if we permitted foreign companies to manufacture our weaponry and support equipment. This means the USA is fast becoming a 3rd world nation that is beholden to foreign interests. It's the END of this country as we know it.
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(I know all about you that can't just walk down the block to the store. I'm just presenting pure numbers here.)
