Why Grocery Shopping is Better in Amsterdam on HackerTube: recommended by 7 Hacker News commenters across 7 separate months, 2020–2025.
explainer · evergreen
A four-minute Not Just Bikes comparison of grocery shopping in Amsterdam versus car-centric North America, arguing that frequent small fresh-food trips beat bulk shopping. It ties this to land use and reduced food waste.
Linked in urbanism and car-dependence threads as a concise case for walkable fresh-food shopping.
“had me pretty convinced land use was the key to breaking through a bad food waste vs shelf-stable food trade-off.”
13 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
I think this video sums up how I, and most europeans, feel about it: ▶ this video If you don't understand the core differences between how to even buy shopping and the influence this has on how you live your life… it's not possible to explain that, actually yeah, it's possible to never do shopping by car, even to feed a whole family.
in “If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity” · View on HN
▶ this video had me pretty convinced land use was the key to breaking through a bad food waste vs shelf-stable food trade-off.
in “Spain will ban selling fruit and vegetables in plastic containers starting 2023” · View on HN
As others have already touch on, there are no parking lots. The streets are narrow with one directional car traffic, and some of the streets around here do not allow car traffic. Most if not all of the shoppers are walking or cycling. And to be fair, I'm cheating just a bit. One of these grocery stores is a "normal" chain (Albert Heijn) whereas the other one is an organic chain (EcoPlaza) so these can coexist in such close proximity to one another. The density of grocery stores is pretty high in the Netherlands. It wasn't until writing this response that I remembered that there is a third grocery store (PLUS) that is also within 1 minute walk from my front door. If I were to increase the time from my door to ~5-6 minutes then the number of grocery stores would become 6x. I would recommend looking at this video[0] from NotJustBikes on the subject. It shows exactly the type of mindset at work when it comes to urban design and zoning. [0]: ▶ this video
in “Stockpile 72 hours of supplies in case of disaster or attack, EU tells citizens” · View on HN
The YouTube channel Not Just Bikes has a 4 minute video on grocery shopping in Amsterdam, compared to when he lived in London, Ontario: ▶ this video (In response to now flagged comment below about grocery shopping 'requiring' moving big stuff)
in “How to Quit Cars” · View on HN
Here’s a video about why small grocery stores are better called “Why Grocery Shopping is Better in Amsterdam”: ▶ this video This is why I asked you for a source. We can play anecdote versus anecdote all day. In the absence of a source I’d be very curious what you think of any specific points made in the video.
in “KittyHawk air taxi startup is winding down” · View on HN
"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled" I used money as it's universally understood to demonstrate how absurd North America urban planning is. But let's say for the sake of argument, you prefer non quantifiable qualities: > Instead of visiting grandparents once per month (because 2 separate trains + a bus is pretty hard trip for someone with little kids), you could visit them every weekend. Alternatively your grandparents can live within walking distance and everybody can see each other everyday or have spontaneous encounters on the streets > Instead of only seeing wild animals in the zoo, you can see them in the forest.. and still have time for chores afterwards. I'm not a woodsman but I'm pretty sure most wild animals are too dangerous for you to be close enough to have a zoo-like experience > Instead of shopping at your local store, where every single yogurt has an added thickener, you can have a better food at a cheaper price -- and spend less time on shopping per week, too. NJB conveniently has a video on this topic as well. Grocery shopping is no longer a 1-2h weekly chore and is just a quick 10 minute detour in your daily commute. The stores also have large variety of healthy produce and buying what you need immediately also results in less food waste. ▶ this video
in “We Won't Raise Our Kids in Suburbia” · View on HN
When a grocery store is very nearby and you go to the grocery store, you can get your produce fresher. And you don't have to plan your meals, which may or may not be a positive side (it is for me). Check out this Canadian talking about his grocery trip in Amsterdam: ▶ this video .
in “Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy” · View on HN
Oh my god the obsession with 'economics of scale' is such narrow minded nonsense. Shopping locally is more efficient, because the distribution network distributes things locally much more efficiently then a bunch of housewives in their SUVs. Sure its cheaper for the shop providing the food, but for the society its more expensive. What you are completely missing is the massive cost of all the infrastructure and the massive subsidizes therein to create these centralized stores. And then the massive cost in time and capital investment for every users to buy a car to pick that stuff up. You are also ignoring the massive waste this creates because people only go shopping every 1-2 weeks. And you are ignore the lack of fresh foods in the food system because of this behavior. That of course Americans eventually pay in their medical systems. If you actually do some research you will see the systematic bias that is in the zoning code, infrastructure cost calculation and services. Walmart often consumer more in just police services then they pay in taxes. Walmart is systematically gaming the property rights system to pay almost no taxes. And yet Walmart uses a huge amount of land and requires a huge amount of public infrastructure to sustain itself. If you really need to do some massive pickup of stuff for a party or something there are still larger stores you can go to as well, just not for everyday stuff. Actually having a shop where I can locally pick up fresh food every day or ever
in “Iowa City made its buses free. Traffic cleared, and so did the air” · View on HN
> Right but look at groceries, that's a ton to haul if they don't have a grocery store there. If you go every 1-2 weeks and do a mass/bulk purchase, perhaps. If the grocery store is between the transit stop and your home, or on your cycling route, you can pick a few things up in an ad hoc manner in smaller batches. * ▶ this video * "Can Groceries Be Delivered TOO Quickly?!": [link]
in “America's "First Car-Free Neighborhood" Is Going Pretty Good, Actually?” · View on HN
"but how do you get groceries???" is such a common bad objection it's become something of a meme to make fun of it. don't want to pick on you but getting food is really not that hard to do. you just do smaller shopping trips more often. ▶ this video what self-proclaimed "15 minute city" are you living in where this is hard? genuinely curious. wondering if the phrase is getting diluted for marketing reasons. I've lived in totally ordinary neighbourhoods of English cities where all this was possible and easy, I never heard them flaunting their "15 minute city"ness, even though they met and exceeded the technical definition. like I'm just confused that people are calling "utopian" the rather unremarkable reality I've lived for 25+ years. it makes me suspect ppl are using the same words to mean very different things.
in “Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists in City of London” · View on HN
> Are you really sure? Yes. It has a huge amount of support from the population. So pretty much everybody agrees on this. Trying to go away from this model would be such a big disruption that the impact could not even be calculated. There is so much complex commuting, that simply wouldn't be possible in a car based model, people would have to migrate. > I mean did you really try and see the material costs in terms of fragility, environment, freedom to move etc? Yes. Pretty much everybody in any country that studies this comes the to same conclusion. Trains are efficiency in terms of space, energy and air quality. > AND of course the mere money spent in such services for just few big companies profits? The SBB and BLS are mostly govenrment companies and they get most of the money. Sure some money goes to private builders and producers of trains. But of course we also export trains so its not a total lose. Private companies are gone make some money and that is fine. There are few big train scandals. For big projects like 'Gotthard Base Tunnel' are voted on democratically, and generally 'only profits big companies' is not even a point the opposition makes. > Let's say a bit of rime that block some trains trolley and a line between Lugano and Bellinzona is out of service for hours (happened few times to me) In pretty much every case this happened over the last 20 years provide backup trains (on other routes) or buses. The delays you experience are not really worse then what you c
in “How the US can stop wasting billions of dollars on each transit project” · View on HN
I think suburban and car-oriented grocery stores give people a skewed impression of how time-consuming it is to check out at a grocery store. If everyone is loading up their cart, the lines are going to be long because everyone has to unload it at checkout. By contrast, if most people are there for just a few things, you speed through the line if there even is one. Bonus if it has a self-scanner like this one to further speed things up, though unfortunately we don’t have any like that near me: ▶ this video
in “Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not for human connection” · View on HN
Why would someone want to try that? In Copenhagen, I can walk to several grocery stores in 5 minutes. Although since my 15 minute cycle to work takes me directly past seven (yes, seven) grocery stores, I usually stop at one of them on the way home from work. It is essentially like this: ▶ this video
in “Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in” · View on HN