Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
the availability of good grocery stores and farmers markets would never be a criteria for deciding where to live. We have always be able to find something or someplace to get decent food. I am surprised to hear what you are saying about TN. Of course I don't know that part of the state you live in but when we considered Tn as a retirement possibility we took a week long trip through the state and I would often stop and pick up stores ads just for fun. I always found prices to be very well within our budget and a great selection. In fact we would see items we hadn't had since we were kids, like one store had neck bones on sale.
I live in an area that is basically dominated by Food City in mainline groceries. Outside of that, you're shopping at Walmart, Sam's, Aldi, or out of the area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD
Yep. No problem getting the Ferrari or Lamborghini serviced at the dealer. Very sparse on the ethnic grocery shopping. When my girlfriend used to live in Franklin, I'd toss things in my roll-aboard that are unobtanium in Franklin. It's more multicultural than the rest of Tennessee but it's not left coast/right coast multicultural. Plenty of affluent white collar professional grocery shopping like Whole Paycheck and Fresh Market.
It's not that ethnically diverse, but yeah, there's plenty of money sloshing around. Many of the Raleigh suburbs are the same way. When you have so much competition across all segments of the market vs. the handful of local providers here, prices fall.
We live in a different but similar area of Tennessee. Very limited selection of stores and product. Quality of meat and produce is minimal and often hit or miss in the stores. What's really sad is when you get into these areas with little competition, you wind up paying more, almost like paying Whole Foods prices, for lesser quality that is in the Walmarts in Franklin.
Since someone mentioned Franklin, just had to make that reference. It's a place with money coming out it's ears. But a little more down to earth than Brentwood.
To answer the OP's question, having a place so shop does take some importance, though the first thing to me is a quality job. Then look within a reasonable distance for the best location to live. It's a couple hours from where I live to Nashville, so don't get there very often for shopping.
Glad to see someone understands.
I went to The Fresh Market yesterday for lunch. They had a variety of premade, "take it home and cook it" meals, but at what they were charging, I'd just go for take-out.
Because I grew up rurally, and grocery shopping was always an inconvenient production, and it was virtually impossible to "pop out and grab something" you needed at random, I do have a rule of thumb that I would like some type of grocery store of size within a mile or two. But that's really my only hard and fast.
Oh, to the poster who repped me to say that "you wouldn't want to live here. We are about 10 miles from the nearest WalMart/or decent grocery store, but you get used to it pretty quickly. As long as I have something like $general close."...
I spent the first 20-ish years of my life a 24-mile round trip from the nearest grocery store, in a time before ordering groceries via the internet was a possibility. I was used to it because it was my sole reality my entire childhood. Still sucked. My parents still live there, and it's still a hindrance, and will become moreso as they age.
I always try to live in a city w/ Trader Joe's if possible. I lived somewhere without it for a year and it was a pain. Made do, but missed out. The rest of the stores I don't care.
It is important to me for sure. I am also really really spoiled where I live now:
1 mile radius: Whole Foods, Sprouts, Grocery Outlet, independent full-size grocery with cheese shop/butcher, restaurant w/ attached mini gourmet market and bakery, huge Saturday Farmers Market, 2 small mid-week farmers markets
2 mile radius: 2 Trader Joes, Koreatown, Chinatown, 3 Safeways, 2 big farmers markets, gourmet European style marketplace, spice shop with basically everything you can think of, butcher, produce stand
5 mile radius: 3 independent markets with large butcher and produce sections (high end selection, cheaper than Whole Foods), 1-2 more Safeways, Lucky's, 2 large Mexican supermarkets, Spanish supermarket, Indian market, Latino neighborhood with lots of produce stands, at least 4 farmer's markets on weekends and weekdays, Japanese market with sushi grade fish, another butcher
I don't have Target on my radar as a grocery option. And I am surely forgetting places, these are ones I have been to at least a couple of times.
I rarely go outside the 2 mile radius for shopping except to visit those indie markets. I prefer to shop in stores and typically stop at least 2x a week. I'd be really sad not to be able to walk to a reasonable grocery store. Most of the places on my 1 mi radius are on my walking commute home (directly or with a small detour)
This may seem like a dumb thing to focus on, but here goes.
Indianapolis had even more selection. Kroger had several extremely fancy stores called "Kroger Marketplace" that are the best stores I've ever been in. There were even more offerings at the high end - Fresh Thyme, Earthfare (an Asheville based Whole Foods knockoff), and The Fresh Market. Aldi on the low end. Super Target, Meijer, and Walmart on the hypermarket end. There were two Costcos and two Sam's within 10-20 minutes of where I lived.
We have Earthfare and Fresh Market, too. I seem to go to Fresh Market more, weekly probably. We also have Publix, which is where I frequent the most. Our Krogers are really run down. Aldi and Trader Joes are here too. I still would like more choices. Food choice is very important to me. For some crazy reason we don't have Costco. Closest one is an hour. We have Sam's and I don't care at all for it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlelou
Grocery Stores are on the list I check whenever I consider a new place. not in any particular order:
Hardware store - not just a big box - on the lines of an Ace or True Value.... they generally have an "old guy" who can tell you how to snake a drain or fix this or that without calling in a professional..
Totally agree about the small hardware store. We have Lowes and HD, but I live really close to ACE and love popping in there for supplies.
Not at all important to me. As long as the basics are covered, we don't care. We have some great outdoor markets but usually get lazy and just go to the one air-conditioned supermarket that has most everything with a couple notable exceptions that I admit, are a PIA.
No lemons
No half n half
No sour cream
Weirdo cream cheese
Not much cheese selection (dairy is not big down here)
Beef is all tough (all grass-fed, LOL)
Produce is wilted
No powdered sugar
No albacore tuna or salmon
So it's a good thing we're not "foodies", LOL. I make everything from scratch so it's kind of a fun challenge for me. You'd be amazed what you can substitute. Pork and chicken are great; hamburger is good.
We came here for the beach, not the food. The supermarket is about 8 miles away. I DO miss Trader Joe's and sometimes the big box stores, but not that much.
Just wow! I couldn't cook without lemons, sour cream, or powdered sugar. Are you talking about fresh tuna and salmon or the ones in cans?
We have a Trader Joe's where I live now, but it's so small, it's really not worth going to. About the only things I ever bought was their butter (cheaper than anywhere else) and canned tuna because it tasted so good. The rest of their stuff is overpriced and their fruits don't taste any different from the regular Safeway's. I know what fresh strawberries and blueberries should taste like, and Trader Joe's fruits do not have that good taste.
The more the merrier, tho I don't need a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's popping up.
Don't know how it compares to Indy, but where I'm at, in the same zip code we got
-2 Aldis
-Walmart Superstore
-Target
-Redners
-Giant
-Costco
-Landis(local supermarket)
The basic fast food chains--McD's, BK, Popeye's, Subway, Wendy's--are a 20 minute walk from my crib. If I move out of state(likely the midwest) the amount of stores within walking distance or a short bus ride/drive away are gonna be a factory of where I move to. There doesn't have to be 7-8 grocery stores in the same zip code but the nearest options can't be more more than a couple of miles from where I'm at. Same with fast food.
We have a lot of good food available, although there's very few markets. There's one smallish grocery store in town, two vegetable markets, two weekly farmers markets and lots of folks in the area growing things so there's a lot of stuff we get from the folks who produce it. There's also a lot of food that just falls from the sky such as avocados, coconuts, lemons, limes, oranges, macadamia nuts, etc. We also have folks who will hunt pigs although now that the hotels are buying meat from the pig hunters we don't see as much of that anymore. But, we can catch a wild pig if/when we want one, they're everywhere. We get most of the beef we eat from a farmer who has one processed about every other year. It's a steer of a dairy breed, grass fed and really tasty. However, we have to buy it all at once the day he gets it back from the processor since he doesn't have a big enough freezer for the whole cow. We get a good price and he gets it sold before it thaws out.
A friend now has thirty hens laying eggs, so we get eggs from her. She lets the chickens run around and eat bugs so the eggs are really flavorful and the yolks are dark orange. We're happy, I'm sure the chickens are happier than their commercial egg laying sisters as well.
Even though we don't have name brand markets or a huge selection of foods from around the planet, we do have access to an amazing amount of locally grown food that is usually organically grown since imported fertilizer and chemicals are too expensive as well as socially frowned on.
There's a Costo about forty miles away and a Walmart about forty two miles away, although we don't shop much at Walmart. There's some other name brand stores, Target & Safeway and such about that far away as well, but we try to source locally produced food as much as possible. It's not only fresher and healthier but it gives the money to our neighbors instead of some sort of corporate office somewhere far away who in turn sends it to some food manufacturer somewhere further away.
I always try to live in a city w/ Trader Joe's if possible. I lived somewhere without it for a year and it was a pain. Made do, but missed out. The rest of the stores I don't care.
and I feel your pain. I was raised only a few miles from the very first Trader Joe's It was before the German family purchased it We lived in ABQ for years before T. Js made an appearance. Now we live in an area where the nearest one is 100 miles away and they don't even sell wine.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
