Many people have very good reasons for having a car (ferrying kids, lugging equipment, tools around, mobility issues etc.) but there are also many who can do without one if they are given the chance. There are also two-car families that with a few minor adjustments can become a one-car family.
We’re a one-car family now in a town with barely any transit (but it does have a great citibike network). We’ve also lived in places without a car where it was possible to do so. This didn’t mean we were without cars 365 days a year. We would rent a car for a weekend every six weeks or so if we wanted to take a trip and might use that same rental period to get all the big stuff from Costco. Some of the bigger cities have programs where you can rent a car/van by the hour if you need to run some errands where public transit doesn’t cut it.
The upside is that you can afford to live closer to cultural hubs/work or train/lightrail stations from where you can get to many different cultural hubs or work relatively quickly without the extra expense of owning a car fulltime or having to pay for a dedicated parking spot/garage.
I relate. I don’t like hiring people to do my chores, regardless of my salary and their needs. At least with something like toilet paper, I think it is probably more efficient to be delivered.
Given that I’m driving to Costco to buy x items, some of which aren’t easy to buy online, buying x + 2 seems preferable to arranging delivery. Obviously, people who don’t already own cars will have a different cost-benefit calculation.
Hmmm, doesn’t look like delivery is an option for a single 40-pack of Costco’s bottled water. You can get a whole palette delivered (no thanks!) or you can sign up for that water cooler program, but that wouldn’t suit my purpose of having something disposable to stick in my back pocket while I’m walking around outside.
We get semi regular (subscribe and save) shipments of powerbars, cereal, rice, snacks, mac and cheese, cat food, cat litter, tuna, and various toiletries… that leaves milk, eggs, bread, meat, fruit, veggies. The corner store has milk, eggs, bread. My wife will sometimes order a grocery delivery, which feels a lot less efficient-- like hiring someone to do your shopping, although we sort of hate stores.
I used to get fizzy water deliveries too, though the sheer quantity led to an eventual soda steam.
Oh, that sounds like Amazon subscriptions, which I use, probably should use more often, I’m just reluctant to commit to using/cooking the same thing on a regular basis. Even between that and the corner store, though, there’s still a slew of stuff that’s cheaper at Costco, or not available at the corner store.
I guess I have the opposite feeling regarding stores. Except for clothes shopping. I hate that.
We drink a lot of seltzer water. Never got it delivered, but we would buy cases of it often. The soda stream has been a great purchase in many ways: convenience, price, and less waste.
There was/is a CO2 shortage here due to a contaminated major source that hit a lot of beer makers hard in terms of price and availability.
Don’t know why this wasn’t passed on to consumers in terms of cost of retail cartridges. The price has been pretty steady for retail. I buy them 4 at a time, exchanging old ones, with free shipping. Usually costs $60 (sometimes a little higher when you add tax, sometimes a little lower when I have a coupon code). Just ordered and had a coupon code.
One cartridge usually lasts us about 3 weeks if we are home.
Yes I think it’s much cheaper to buy a big CO2 tank and fill it yourself. Soda Stream found they could charge a much higher price per unit if they developed a product that was a bit more consumer friendly.
I exchange the canisters at Target. I want to say $16.99 for the exchange (plus tax) but I can’t recall if that’s the latest price or before some of the recent high inflation. Something in that vicinity anyway.
+1 I was worried it would sit in the corner next to other random once-a-thanksgiving appliances. Turns out it is the greatest household product since the invention of the flush-toilets.