re: How do people who live out in the country do it with grocery shopping.

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There's no way the people out there have cable, phone lines, etc. Probably two hours from the nearest grocery store.

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The world's largest gated community is Hot Springs Village Arkansas. A Dollar General outside the East gate, a grocery outside the West gate, 20 miles and nearly 20k people between them.

They were about to finish renovation on a tiny store for groceries just outside Mom's subdivision when I moved her closer to the remaining family down here in La.. Tiny as in smaller than a gas station.

That's it unless you wanna drive the worn out 2 lane 45 mph highway into Hot Springs which is about a 20 minute drive from the gates of the Village or roughly 40 minutes from most of the houses, so round trip is easily 1.5 hours just driving.

But hey, the Village has 11 lakes and 9 golf courses.

My parents had to pay $350 just to get a single land line telephone when they moved in in 1992. Real estate agent that sold them their house said the original resident with the 1st house paid over $350,000 for a telephone hookup. Parents got dedicated internet about 1998, fiber optic was soon after though and talk of gigabit in the next couple years. Took 2 weeks to get their cable hooked up as the provider had to lay line to the neighborhood. The neighborhood was pre-wired though, just the main cable feed had to be run from the next closest neighborhood.

ETA: Forgot about the Wal-Mart down highway from the main gate. But who wants to buy meat there?

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But they farm and raise most everything they need

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This is what people do see to do 40 years ago. Grow crops, have chickens maybe a few cows, pigs. Go to grocer store rarely.

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fallguy_1978

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What do you do for a living?

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Obviously he’s a bounty hunter and stuntman

I lived up in the Rockies for a couple years (Central Idaho). There was a small grocery store in a tiny town, population 68, about a half-hour away. But for all other provisions, it was a 70 mile trip on winding roads. Got to the bigger town (population 1000) about once a month.

You learned to make very very good lists. When you forgot something (usually hardware of some sort), it was truly a pain in the arse.

I enjoy shopping every two days or so. It's fun going into the market and deciding on a whim whats for dinner based on what looks good at the time. Plus fresh baked bread is one of my favorite things. Helps with over eating too. I think I would be stuffing my face around the clock if I made monthly costco trips.

Wait a minute. You're telling me there are still places in America more than 15 minutes away from a Wal-Mart?

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I’m talking people who live like 45 minutes or greater from the nearest grocery store. How does this work in practice? I would think having to spend hours in the car just to go on a routine shopping trip would be an intolerable way to live life.

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Weekly shopping trips enabled by large freezers, a large vehicle, and a distant Sam's Club.......

That and Amazon.com.

We grew up rural, about 45-60 from nearest grocery store

My Mom would make bi-weekly trips to the grocery store and stock up on everything

We also always had a large garden and chickens

Nowadays, Dollar General has become a huge plus for many rural communities, as kinda establishing itself as the WalMart for rural areas.

My parents have one about 10 minutes away now and it even has fresh produce.