General Suburban Updates and Rumours

[Acitta]

New City a handful of times, years ago. Of course I could survive off it, but it's not my ideal place to be shopping... I also went to Central Fresh for quite a while, but deciding between the at least weekly 40 minute walk (half of it burdened with groceries, and no backpacks allowed!) or spending the money on transit and getting lucky with bus timing so that it's actually quicker than walking got old really fast.

I called them out on this once. I can understand asking high school children and vagrants to leave their bags, but if I'm going in wearing a suit and happen do have a backpack, I'm obviously not there to shop lift stuff. I get the need for a policy and to make it broad rather than selective, but you should be able to tell who is and who is not likely going to steal. A guy in a suit or a nurse on her lunch break in scrubs is probably not there to shoplift.

You don't need to go to 10 different stores in one day. The ones I listened each individually have a good variety of types of products.

Stop being so CarBrained™ and thinking that the only way to get groceries is to take your SUV once a month to a ginormous Zehrs and fill the back end with $500 worth of stuff.

People the world over have panniers or baskets on their bikes, and two of those reusable grocery bags (one per pannier or both in the basket) can hold a lot of food. Stop at one store on your way home on Wednesday and in 10-15 minutes you can easily fill those two bags with enough of the basics to feed two people for more than a week. It doesn't take very much planning to the point that it becomes second nature to get eggs and fresh veggies this week, 2x2L milk and fruits next week, and meat and a medium bag of potatoes every 4th week.

There are lots of shops, but far apart and usually very niche. Not everyone has the time to hop between stores. Meat (if I ate it) would be required to be purchased at Central or Marché Leo's. A good loaf of bread and there is no bakery still open? I guess I'm making a few blocks to Full Circle Foods (they sell nice breads, some from Golden Hearth). Oh but I need some chips and I'm in the mood for some plain Lay's. Better backtrack to Shoppers. Oh no I forgot the wine my wife wanted me to get, off to the LCBO now. No sorry, I don't carry change. Phew, all done. God damn the lock on my bike has been cut! Where is my bike! Ugh guess I'm walking to the LRT. It's standing room only as usual, 4 different people are playing music over a Bluetooth speaker and one guy keeps chewing on one of the holding straps.

It has nothing to do with being "car brained". Hypermarkets exist for a reason...convenience. I'm all for supporting small businesses but they alone cannot support high densities and needs of their populations. My home in Toronto is on Fort York Boulevard. There are 5 or 6 general grocery stores all within walking distance there, plus lots of specialty shops. My old place in Berlin was on Karl-Marx-Straße I don't know if you've ever been to Berlin, but its a dense city. I could always walk out my door and have a million large stores - Aldi, Netto, REWE, Penny, a million specialty shops or foreign grocery stores and of course, the Berlin staple, 24 hour spätis.

Shopping in Waterloo Region sucks, car or no car. And downtown needs a proper supermarket ASAP.

I moved to Kitchener 21 years ago primarily because it was easy to get around in by bicycle and transit compared to where I was last living in Richmond Hill. If I wanted good entertainment in Richmond Hill, I had to travel to a long way to downtown Toronto, whereas in Kitchener there was lots of live music only a short distance away. Transit has only improved in the Region. There are lots of supermarkets 2 or 3 km away, and it is easy to get to others farther away on my ebike. The only downside is that the affordable housing I moved here for has become no longer as affordable as it was.