[distances]

Why does everyone keep their veggies in the fridge, do you buy them in bulk? Basic veggies like onions, tomatoes, cucumber I eat fast enough to just keep on shelves and in regular rotation, and all more special plants are anyway bought for a certain meal in mind so they're used within a day or two.

My fridge does have a veggie section but I use that for beer.

[tetromino_]

1. Ants, cockroaches, and flies invade one's apartment fairly regularly, and will stay if you leave food for them.

2. Inconvenience of going to a grocery store every day.

3. Unavailability of non-basic ingredients within a short distance of one's home. I can walk to a nearby store to get some carrots or cabbage, but if I want bitter melons, black radishes, or oyster mushrooms, I have to drive to a different neighborhood. And once at a store there, may as well load up and buy in bulk to reduce the number of trips.

3a. Unavailability of affordable ingredients within a short distance. Buying in bulk at a big store gets very tempting when one notices how much cheaper it is per pound. (Alas, one forgets that some of those bulk pounds will wilt.)

4. Unpredictability of consumption. Maybe the toddler really doesn't want tomatoes on the table today. Maybe there is a production outage at work, so you don't have time to cook.

[distances]

Good points, although you don't have to go shopping every day in any case. Tomatoes last a few weeks, onions and garlic a month or two. Carrots and cabbage are rare enough that I only buy them for specific meals.

I live in a city flat where there is no risk of ants or cockroaches, and even fruit flies are only around in the summer months. So I guess I just don't have the same problems as others.

[mbg721]

To keep the bugs off of them. I know in theory you're supposed to keep tomatoes out, but they attract fruit flies.

[distances]

Somehow doesn't happen to my tomatoes. Maybe the organic trash bin is just a juicier target for my flies.

[LorenPechtel]

That assumes you go shopping every couple of days.

[rsynnott]

Yeah, I think both the "why would anyone put vegetables in a fridge" stance and the "how could anyone not put vegetables in a fridge" stance are probably mostly based on lifestyle factors. I walk past two supermarkets plus a greengrocers on my way home from work, so I don't think I've ever put a vegetable in my fridge. But I know people who live in rural areas and go to a supermarket once a week or less frequently.