[thaumasiotes]

> You can either drive 5 minutes into town and go to the Dollar General for most of your basic needs, or you can drive a half hour to the nearest city with a Walmart / Target / etc.

I'm intrigued by these time estimates. Living in a suburb of Santa Cruz (just south of the Bay Area), the choices are similar. Completely inadequate corner store (much worse than DG) locally, or drive to a location with real stores. That drive is a minimum of 15 minutes depending on the store you want.

But I feel like people in beach communities around the Bay Area would struggle with the idea that they're just as remote as hicks in rural Iowa.

[austincheney]

Suburban Texas must be an odd phenomenon then. Kroger has found the key to dominating a vicinity away from Walmart. They build giant grocery stores about 3 miles away from each other where the Walmarts are more like 8 miles apart from each other. Then are various other competing stores in the mix as well.

* https://www.google.com/maps/search/kroger/@32.8956425,-97.18...

* https://www.google.com/maps/search/walmart/@32.8725386,-97.2...

* https://www.google.com/maps/search/albertsons/@32.8723824,-9...

* https://www.google.com/maps/search/aldi/@32.8724215,-97.2184...

A side note to this crowding is that unless you live within quick access to a freeway on-ramp it often takes about 30 minutes to get to that store 3 miles away.

[fencepost]

There's a location in the town where I grew up with two Jewel (Albertson's) locations less than a mile apart on the same road. One is a much older store (early 80s), the other is much newer and was acquired when Dominick's (Safeway) shut down in the Chicago area.

By keeping both stores they have all the good grocery locations at that end of town tied up. There's a Mariano's (Kroger) on the opposite side of town and a Walmart with some groceries a couple miles in another direction, but most people go to what's right there.

[epistasis]

This is a funny, I totally agree that getting just out of Santa Cruz's densest part you'll run into people as redneck as anywhere in Iowa. I'm not so sure about anywhere in Santa Cruz County being like a food desert though...

But inside of Santa Cruz, there's an abundance of corner and grocery stores. Anywhere you live you'll have 1-3 amazing grocery stores within 1-2 miles. My favorite being Shopper's Corner, which has selection on par with stores being 5-10 it's size in physical area, but being quick to walk through and grab exactly what you need. And a butcher that will but 95% of the US's supermarkets to shame. So good and fast...

[your-nanny]

the op didn't say redneck.

[craz8]

To be fair, if I even think of Santa Cruz, I end up in a 15 minute traffic backup

[adrianN]

Having to get into a car to get groceries is probably one of the reasons for that.

[eitally]

Interestingly, living in San Jose is the first time I've regularly walked to the grocery store. Why not when I lived elsewhere, equally close or closer to perfectly good Kroger, Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Publix or Winn-Dixie? Hills. Walking 4 blocks carrying groceries up and down hills in heat & humidity (or snow & ice) isn't remotely the same as on flatland in a mild climate.

[bunderbunder]

Chicago is that way, too. The only difference is it's a 30 minute bus ride instead of a 30 minute drive.

That may be an economic equilibrium point.

(Edit: For infrequent stuff like clothes. Obvs, regardless of the free market's default behavior, we need better for food.)

[bretthoerner]

> That may be an economic equilibrium point.

It also reminds me of Marchetti's constant: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/06/why-commute-t...

[mholt]

We Iowans usually drive on country roads pretty fast -- also, we're used to 15-30 minute commutes for basic things.

[sureaboutthis]

Yep. Visited a girlfriend's rural relatives in Missouri. One of them asked if we wanted to swimming. As I got in the car, I asked how far it was. "Oh, about 40 miles", he said. (Or what is more than that?!) We drove 85MPH or more on not-so-paved roads the whole way.

[pmart123]

>>> But I feel like people in beach communities around the Bay Area would struggle with the idea that they're just as remote as hicks in rural Iowa.

Well, that made me laugh a bit, and it helped me frame why someone in a rural area would go to a Dollar General versus a Walmart.

[scruple]

Which would be funny, because driving through the nearby Santa Cruz mountains can be reminiscent of the part of Appalachia where I grew up. Complete with trashed cars in the front yard and trash strewn about.

[likeclockwork]

The Iowans probably drive everywhere at 80mph.

[thaumasiotes]

The Californians are more likely to be driving 75. That doesn't make much difference over a 20-minute trip.

[mholt]

It does when you aren't stuck in traffic at the start and end of your trip.

[mattnewton]

Santa cruzian here: I don’t, the views and the weather are too nice to rush and put yourself in danger. Besides you’d probably just be rushing into traffic most days.

[dcow]

Speed limit is between 55 and 80 depending on the type of road anywhere that isn’t a town in Iowa. It’s perfectly safe.

[mattnewton]

Yeah, Iowa is flat and the people probably know how to drive in inclement weather. Just saying people here shouldn’t be going that fast :)

[wkearney99]

Iowa is not flat. It's not the Rockies, of course, but it's got a lot more hills than you'd think.

Try biking across it. I have and it ain't flat.