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How Far Do You Travel To Get Groceries?
Started
by The Kind Life
on October 15, 2012
Hi Kind Lifers! The Kind Life editorial team wants to know: how easy or hard is it to get the groceries you need for your family? Do you travel further than your non-veg friends to get to a Whole Foods or other natural foods store? Or do you have a great store right in your back yard? Do you ever order groceries online? If so, where do you order from? What's your overall grocery shopping strategy? Share your tips in this thread, and we may include them in a future post!
King Soopers is 25 miles or 1 hour away in good weather.
Natural Foods Market is 30 miles away or 1 hour and a few minutes drive, in good weather.
In a pinch there is a gas station that has junk food about 6 miles away.
I can drive to the next town north, there is a small grocery store there and it is only about 30 minutes away, but they must not put thier food away when it comes in because my family always gets food poisoning from the refrigerated or frozen foods there. Plus they are expensive. So I will only go there if we need dry foods. You can't get very fresh fruit or veggies there either.
We like to get some of our groceries delivered through Door to door organics.
I wouldn't change it for the world though, because last night I sat in my doorway and talked to the racoons partying on my porch sorting through my recycle bin looking for yummies (they didn't find anything). A month ago I was driving to the store and watched a mountain lion playing in the field. Plus the buggling elk this fall were amazing!
I can walk to all of my grocery stores but that probably has something to do with the fact that I live in Aachen, Germany and thats normal here when you live in the city center. Within 15 minutes walking distance I have 6 grocery stores. Within 20-30 minutes walking distance I have another 5 stores available ranging from individual stores to large chains with 3 organic food stores included.
In order to go to Whole Foods I have to travel over an hour. The closest "health food" store is Kroger's (30 minutes away) and some of those are better than others. So for the most part I go to Kroger's when I need something, and I also order online at Bob's Red Mill.
I mainly shop at Kroger which is about 15 minutes from my house (I live in the country obviously) they just redid one of them nearby which has a much larger produce section and a good size naturals section and a BULK grain/bean section (woo best thing to happen to the west side!).
I love whole foods and I have heard good things about trader joes but the only ones are on the north side where the rich kids hang (not being mean, i'm serious that is the more affluent side of town) and it takes me about an hour to 90 minutes to get there :/ so I only go for items I can't get in kroger (and I limit my trips to no more than once a month) but another thing i have recently done is buying stuff online through amazon...
I'm always torn because I have a chain store within 15 minute bike ride and I have trailer for my bike so this is a great option, but unfortunately this store has limited organically and even less bulk foods. I have a whole foods which is great but about 30 minute drive away. My plan is to bike close for what I can and take infrequent (perhaps monthly) driving trips to whole food for provisions.
I have two health food stores I shop at here in South Bend, IN. The first is Apple Valley Natural/Organic Foods and Down To Earth. These are the only two stores I can actually find vegan products I eat and more gluten free foods. I love how I can also find (a small amount but some) organic produce at these stores too. But the nearest Whole Foods/Trader Joe's to me is in Chicago, IL. So I'd have to drive an hour and a half to go shopping there. However, I'm eagerly awaiting our new Whole Foods store coming in spring 2013 to South Bend :) I cannot wait.
Everytime I go to Whole Foods in Chicago (when we make the trip) it's so exciting for me b/c I have so much more items to choose from that I can eat. My whole family are meat eaters (including my husband) so they don't get how important it is to have good food in the house. I can sometimes find the Amy's meals and Morning Star meatless frozen meals at the local supermarkets in town but it's more of a limited selection it seems. I also shop on veganessentials.com, which is wonderful. However they charge a lot just for shipping and that can make my purchase more expensive if I'm only buying a few things, that would be my one complaint about that site.
I live in the country and am lucky to have an independently owned natural foods store 15 minutes away, however their prices are expensive. Every Saturday morning we have a farmer's market in town, and most farmer's now have road side stands which are open during the week. Trader Joe's and/or Whole Foods is 90 minutes away. I wish I could fund a Trader Joe's in my area!
I must travel at least 100 miles to get all of the things we need. Whenever we travel a coop is always a stop for us. We can purchase a few organic products at our local store but items like kale, chard etc are not to be found. Would love to be able to purchase what we need every few days. Couldn't even purchase tahini locally yesterdsay.
Our local HyVee has a health food section and it's really close by! There are also two co-ops within 20 minutes' driving time, but I don't usually go there because they require a membership to avoid extra charges. Unfortunately, the closest Trader Joe's is an hour and a half away, so I never go there (even though it's one of my favorite places to get groceries!). When I visit my parents I go to the one by them!
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