(02-09-2016, 10:34 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I grew up living in a (northern) European city; we had a car, but I have no recollection of ever going grocery shopping by car back then. My mother would carry the groceries back in a bag or two -- given the family of five, what it really meant was going shopping more frequently than once a week. And in France people will go to a store daily, to buy bread at the minimum -- otherwise it simply wouldn't be fresh!
More frequent, less-mega shopping, picking things up after work, prepared foods, freshly-baked bread, these are minor lifestyle adjustments that allow downtown grocers to not only survive but thrive.
I'm sure some people grocery shop by car here in Zurich, but many people don't. I have no idea where one would even go to do that.
Bread (and croissants etc) are generally so much better in grocery stores and even depanneurs in Switzerland than in Canada! I was driving from KW to Hamilton two weeks ago, was hungry for a snack, but realized that there would be zero acceptable food items on the road. Sigh. Some grocery store bread can be acceptable.
EDIT: oh, I realized where you'd drive to shop now. Lidl, 4km from here (15 minutes by tram or car, 50m away from a tram stop). They keep on distributing flyers, and then I'm like "I have no idea where Lidl actually is". Not sure where you'd park to go to Lidl.
https://www.google.ch/maps/place/Lidl+Sc...9b5c?hl=en