There's a traveloge on my block. It's the only business surrounded by apartment towers and townhouses. and I wish the city would buy the property and rebuild it, put a corner store and a daytime cafe/nighttime bar in the front, with the traveloge behind/above. Like. Three entrances with the center one going back to the hotel and a business on each side. I would love that. but I don't know if that's even possible. Also, can a city government just outright own a business? That would be kinda interesting if it was a bar owned by the city lol.
@@CityBeautiful Cool... I'll send this video to my councilman, he probably won't watch, but at least it's something! Maybe when I finally have time to show up to a council meeting I can bring this up... other things to bring up too though :/ Hmmm.
In the UK, one of the first questions anyone asks when choosing somewhere to live is "how far is the nearest shop?". It's considered *extremely* undesirable to have to go a long way to the nearest place you can buy milk. The fact that "it's nice to have a nearby shop where you can buy essential groceries without a car" has to be explained blows my mind.
Where grew up in the UK was around 5000 people in 1.5km^2 There we had: 5 takeaways 3 local stores 3 Barbers/hairdressers 2 pubs 2 sport clubs 2 Parks 2 Allotments 2 primary schools (elementary) 1 Post Office 1 Church 1 secondary school + 6th form (High school) 1 growing business park 1 Library we also had a bus every 15 mins between 2 local towns from 6am-12am and every 30 mins to the nearest city
Having a corner store you can walk to from your house makes a world of difference in a youngster's life. I was completely stranded at home until I could drive because it was over two miles to the nearest store, despite living in a suburb of 20,000 people, and going there would mean crossing a couple busy roads and one busy and narrow bridge frequented by dump trucks.
Conversely, when I was growing up, we had a few stores that it was possible to visit while walking, as we lived fairly close to the town square. Need some hardware supplies? Fabric for crafts? Fresh-baked donuts? Just walk over to the town square. The hardware store is gone, but the town square there still exists, and has plenty of businesses. More now than there were at the time, I think.
Same here. And imagine having a crazy parent/parents and how isolating that can be. Suburbs literally turn US children into people under house arrest. Their crime?: non-applicable.
I live in a suburb of 10,000 or so people. Within 5 minutes walking I have 3 supermarkets, book store, pharmacy, 2 hairdressers, 4 general stores, pet store, 2 clothing, florist, garage, bike shop, phone shop, restaurant, bar, fast food and dry cleaner. It's really not that hard. I think this is true for all but the most rural areas of my country (the Netherlands). Kids go to the store on their own well before the age of 10.
Imagine allowing people who are in the lower and middle classes an opportunity to own a corner store. This would allow families to earn more money than working at a giant box store for minimum wage.
The weird thing about this is that most lower class people live in places that do have corner stores. It is mostly middle class and higher that live in places that do not have corner stores.
@@evancombs5159 they do, but unfortunately they are usually liquor stores carrying only alcohol and things like chips and candy. Not things like fresh bread or things like that. Nothing healthy like vegetables or fruits or juice or milk
@@bayareanewman1566 that varies quite a bit, but prices are definitely at a premium in urban food deserts. I'm down in SD and it's mostly 7-11 franchises owned by various immigrant groups. They've got this tacky new look inside but they carry more groceries than they used to. But even the old school bodegas have some fresh items like bag lettuce and some handy fruits.
@@ianhomerpura8937 But wouldn't a small store in the neighbourhood boost property value? I recently moved to another city (within Europe) and when looking for a new flat, every single announcement I looked at was talking about how great the connection to public transit and how many shops and restaurants are in the neighbourhood. Are Americans really that different, that something that is the main selling point for a flat on one continent is something that decreases property value on another continent? That wouldn't make any sense.
@@beckobert You’re not American so you don’t get it. Owning a single family home in the suburbs is the American Dream. You are considered a success if you achieve this. America is a massive country so we have lots of land for nice big houses.
@@beckobert Unfortunately, no. The stigma in suburban America is that only the poor (especially poor people of color) need, use, or live near corner stores. The affluent whites moved to suburbia so they didn't have to live in urban areas, and corner stores bring a hint of "urbanness" (diversity) to their neighborhoods. To them, that means crime, and that means corner stores greatly decrease property values because the stores attract "unsavory elements" and threaten the sense of peace and safety of locals. You have to keep in mind that some people live next to the same neighbors for 30 years here and don't even know their names - and prefer it that way. But anyway, affluent folks can afford to drive out of their labyrinthine, McMansion-filled neighborhoods in their massive new cars to get whatever they want on a whim (or pay for delivery) and like the luxury of doing so. Or they consider it a small price to pay to keep the crime that stores bring on the "other side of town". The corner stores are typically gas stations, not standalone entities, and are a minimum of 15-20 minutes away from subdivisions (speaking as a person of color living in a place like this in Southern California) Almost forgot to mention this is an area with over 200k people and we have no real public transit system except for special services the disabled can call. (because their thought is only poor people use public transit and it will bring in more beggars and crime)
@@sharpestcookieinthetoolbox9742 You have a point there on public transportation. Bus routes are very limited or non-existent in suburbia because people who live there have their own cars and don't need to take the bus. If they had to they'd most likely call a cab or rideshare. In the majority of the US, the main purpose of public transportation is to target the young and/or poor citizens in urban areas and many can't even afford a car.
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have local shops that provide most of my basic needs within walking distance. It makes getting in the car so much more frustrating!
@@jillengel4124 Amen -- I still own a car but only drive two or three times/week. I walk to work, and can get most of what I need on foot. Driving in traffic hurts my soul.
As an European, I just can't imagine a neighbourhood without any corner store. Seriously, Americans, stop be so stubborn with zoning, and either dump it, or start do it the Japanese way (the American way is a white list of permitted activities, all the rest being forbidden ; the Japanese way is a black list of forbidden activities, all the rest being authorised, which could also be called "freedom").
I saw a tweet the other day praising the benefits of living in London-they had begun to toast a bagel, but forgot they were out of cream cheese, so went out to get some, and were back before the bagel had popped up. The convenience is crazy. You're less likely to have the problem of having food in your fridge / cupboards that's past its best as you just buy stuff as and when you need it. Meanwhile if you do a big shop once a week, you have to guesstimate what you will actually use.
This is unbelievable from an outside perspective, being in the UK with land-use planning rather than zoning. It's such a weird concept, that you can only have a limited type of housing and local retail being ostracized. Not just that but in older victorian inner city areas (and places victorians would describe as suburbs along old tram and train lines, Cathays and Plasnewydd in Cardiff are great examples), there will be a street of shops as well that provide almost anything, from carpet shops, convenience stores, pubs, clubs, cocktail bars, community centres, Shisha bars, nail saloons, massage parlours (if you get what I mean), takeways, restaurants, barbers, home appliances, jewellers, pharmacies, estate agents etc. Almost anything you need is just walking distance away and almost all independent, catering to the local community i.e. if the population is elderly or of a different ethnic background/religion or students, you have an entire shopping area that can cater too specific needs and wants.
Here in Northern Ireland (the place u colonised and still occupy) we have American style suburbs, but far uglier. Every wall has graffiti. Either Protestant graffiti, catholic graffiti, or art graffiti. Also we have 2 train lines, 0 in my county.
@@haroldinho9930 The difference will be, is that you will still have convience stores and less stratified housing types, as no zoning in Northern Ireland. Just looked it up, I'm amazed at how much of the railway in Northern Ireland has been dismantled. Also seen as you brought it up technically a majority of the people in Northern Ireland want to be in the United Kingdom, so democratically they want to stay, but if that changes of course I'd support it.
@@Alex-cw3rz i am shocked an appalled that you single handedly colonized and occupied Northern Ireland but I guess there had to be someone to blame. Also a little impressed. I mean wow how old are you. I am glad you been called on it though cos it means i am not to blame, thk god.
I remember when I was 11, I had an American penpal from Califorina. I told him I was going to the shop. Walked to the shop, bought some sweets and a drink and walked back in total about 5 minutes. When I came back he said "I thought you was going to the store" which I said I did. Then for the next half hour I had to explain the concept of an off license, the thing that blew his mind is that I can walk anywhere, to school and pretty much the opposite side of town if I had a phone on me. Looking back I can understand why he was taken a back and feel abit sad that he probably grew up in some culture dead suburb.
@@liamness I *wish* I had something even close to that. While my campus itself is certainly walkable, all of the college-run food places aren't open quite as late as I'd like, and the nearest grocery/goods store is a massive Walmart separated from the college by a 5-lane highway. So if you want toilet paper for your bathroom you're going to have to have a car, or have a roommate or friend who does. Sure, there's a bus stop, but the student passes are expensive and not advertised at all.
As someone with lifelong vision issues, and even post surgeries I lack binocular vision so STILL can't drive, a corner store type situation would be a Godsend to get those more frequent incidentals. Think outside the box just a touch and have those stores also act as pickup points and you'd have something that caters to the disabled, elderly, and any other segment with mobility issues to get more of their tasks done with less need to burdin those around them. I have MANY ideas on these sort of 'pocket retail' segments, but the question is how would they be defined for the sake of zoning, permits, and regulation? Single story structures that take up no more space than surrounding residential lots with no more than x amount of parking on lot?
My spouse struggles to drive for the same reasons. Selecting a place that was safe to walk to some stores/groceries/etc was essential. You have to look to live in: Really old traditional neighborhoods built pre WWII. Near Pre WWII constructed universities or college towns (bonus many have free buss service) Some new urbanist developments Some downtowns (a good deal have been ruined)
This. So much THIS. Thank you for sharing. I have limited vision and cannot drive as well. It's funny, in all of the videos like this that I have watched and in all their comment sections, I have never come across someone who brought this fact up. I honestly think people take the option to drive completely for granted, and don't even consider that maybe this kind of "conveinence" could be the difference between severe disadvantage or independence for many. According to my state, I don't "officially" have a disability, but it seems that they don't care about my safety or others'. Either way, however, I would go so far to say that not being able to drive in the US IS a disability in itself, and its about time for some representation.
In the UK, corner shops have evolved quite a bit the last few years - largely because big supermarkets have been taking over. They're now much more than just a shop. Often they'll have a post office inside but also a drop-off/collection point for couriers, often a small hot food counter, hot drinks machine, cash machine/ATM and a tonne of other services that can no longer be justified in having it's own shop. That's a double positive for owners, because they're paid for those services and it brings customers in Plus they'll usually be in a row of a few shops, usually a fast food place (typically fish and chips or Chinese food) and then maybe a charity shop, computer/phone repair, hairdresser/barber etc. So a lot more than just a shop is usually less than a 5 minute walk if you're in an urban area. It's a good opportunity for pretty much everyone to get some exercise, fresh air etc.
When I worked at the Coop down the road from home, in 2 years we added: Amazon Hub Lockers Starbucks coffee machine Hot Food DPD collection/drop-off Click and Collect shopping Vegan and Organic food Free-from Food we already had an ATM and a bakery beforehand
The thing that amazes me is how that corner store you showed came from the lot of a single family home. The inside looks huge. We really should have these everywhere
Living in Portland, my house was built in what was formally the back garden of the house in front. Honestly it's great, both houses still have plenty of space and my house is nicely set back from the road so it's very safe for my daughter to play.
Thank you for explaining how walkable development takes cars off the road. “Not having parking will create too much parking” is one of the most common complaints I hear about infill proposals in my sprawl city. It’s sad how many people in the US can’t even seem to imagine a world where every errand doesn’t require a 30 minute car trip
It does not necessarily. If I commute I can get my groceries while driving home - no need to walk to the shop and I would not do it. Same for living in smaller villages with steep slopes where I theoretically could go to the store in 15 minutes, but bringing everything back is a big chore, so I use the car once a week. So most shops that you'd consider a "corner store" - aka discounter supermarkets like Aldi have parking spaces, even in cities, except for the very inner city. Btw, I live in Europe.
Tiendas or Kioscos (Corner shops) are a really important part of neighborhoods here in Latin America. You can go walking to get your groceries and daily products for many things like cooking and cleaning. Also, many people, specially in small towns and neighborhoods gather together in these places, working even sometimes as meeting points. Even children can go around walking and buy things if it's just down the street.
That’s one of many things why I love Mexico. Even in suburb residential areas there are at least a few convince store and also small business like a taco shop or hotdog stand. But here in Phoenix nope all driving. Ugh!!!
I didnt know I missed this until now. When I was a kid in elementary I lived near a corner store. When we would have cookouts we would walk to it for juices, beer, and snacks. The owners and workers knew me enough as a child that once when I snuck out of the house at age five ( I have no memory of it but heard stories) they gave me a juice box and sent me home. It eventual upadated to food/taco place instore then had a subway b4 a convenient store out competed it and the store was demolished. I miss it now. The house we lived in then, had three units: the main one for my grandmother and the other two was for her kids who started families to use till they saved enough to buy property and a house. So we would visit even after we moved out and the corner store was still used. Now we live in a single family home less than a mile and a half away from a walmart and HEB food store where we never walk to because of the parking lots cars and no sidewalks. You made me all nogolistic.
Move if you can. Go the places that have corner stores. People need to stop acting like single family hours are a desirable destination or goal in life.
You are awesome for doing a video about this. I am currently trying to convince city council to allow small scale commercial in neighborhoods in my city right now. It's slow, but it'd be incredible. Again thank you so much for putting out this video :)
after watching your videos I am so more aware of my surroundings. I am so use to not having a cornerstone that last weekend when I needed some milk I first thought of how I have to go get my car, drive 5 minutes, get out to go inside ect ect. And it just sounded the worse. But then I remembered our new neighborhood had a corner store so I was to pop over for milk and it took me less then 5 minutes. It was amazing and my day whole day was derailed over milk. So happy to see a whole video about this.
I live a mostly single family home neighborhood thats very suburban. But the streets are traffic calmed and have low speed limits so you lots of people walking and on bikes. And there's (for some reason) a person who turned the first story of their 2 story home into a cafe, which is very popular (especially on weekends). Whenever I go there or walk by, I am just shocked that people are so opposed to this kind of development in their neighborhoods.
Government seems to love to kill small business. Sad thing. I remember when Dad took the car to a one-man shop with one lift. There he walked the underneath of the car and asked and answered questions as to the maintenance. So much better than taking a car to a shop where you only get to talk to someone at a desk about your car and you have no contact with the mechanic, and you get charged for who knows what.
This kind of content simultaneously makes me so happy that things could be different, but it also makes me so sad that the place I live is so unlivable, awful, depressing, and disconnected/atomised. I want to move somewhere else so bad, I hate how I have to drive everywhere to do anything or rely on deliveries...
Another big issue is the lack of sidewalks in many US neighborhoods. I have a small Safeway about a 5 minute walk away but I drive because we are connected by a 45 mph arterial with no sidewalks for 2/3rds of that distance. Normally one would petition the city to put in sidewalks but US cities are constantly short of money and it's hard to argue for spending money on sidewalks when money for the poor/homeless and additional police officers is in short supply.
Here in India, there are grocery/stationary/fastfood shops in every corner of streets. Our 3 direct neighbours are a grocery shop, a stationary shop and a fast food shop. The grocery shop is so close that I shout out from my house to pack stuff in advance. There's also a tea shop, a tailor, a flower shop, a medical shop, 4 more grocery shops, 2 more fast food shop, a saloon, a govt primary school, a cement & brick shop and many more such shops all within 3 minutes of walking distance.
@Zaydan Naufal Cities like Mumbai and Kolkata (where I live) are famous for being unplanned tho. Also construction takes years and decades to complete. Delhi, Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad are more planned cities and have better transportation.
I visit San fransico it’s so nice that there are stores everywhere and don’t even need a car to explore the city but if it wasn’t so expensive I would have thought about moving there. I guess freedom doesn’t really exist in the US when there are so many restrictions and can’t even have a simple grocery store just 10 houses down your street.
Hello neighbor. I'm in Berkeley and within a three minute walk of my house have two corner stores, two coffee houses and six restaurants. It is five minutes to two pharmacies and ten minutes to two humongous markets. I mean they carry six kinds of bananas.
That's what I really like about SF. Everything is within walking distance and public transportation is abundant, despite the locals hating on it. I live and grew up in Northwest Florida and you will need a car just to safely get around and many jobs out there expect you to have reliable transportation.
It makes me really sad that the only halfway liveable, lively, non-sprawling US cities are all really expensive or have massive social problems, or both. Yanks do know how to build decent cities otherwise. The conspiracy theorist in me is thinking that it's a scheme to price ordinary working people outside of actually liveable urban areas and launch them into the arms of suburban hell, and for said suburbia to also fulfill the desires of the wealthy suburbanites.
I love living in the city and being able to walk to multiple grocery stores that are 2-10 min away. So much more convenient than one massive weekly grocery run in the SUV.
I often hear Americans referring to suburban areas as "safe" or "good for children" but I really think this view is stunted. Obviously there are unsafe urban areas, but I feel like what these people are talking about isn't safety, it's isolation. Like you're supposed to raise kids in a restricted area, keeping them from unwanted influences so they won't know that you're a terrible control freak of a parent.
😎 Absolutely true. In America, 10 is the new 2. And by that I mean that 10-year-old kids in America have as little freedom to play, experiment and learn as 2-year-olds elsewhere. 🤩
So true. That's how people thought in the 60's and they don't dare to realize suburbs are unsustainably expensive and isolating. Suburban life causes alzheimers
The neighborhoods in my country have at least 2 convenience stores and even farmer markets. So shopping for resources is super easy especially during quarantine times, we had vendors who sell groceries so we didn't even have to leave our house that much in 2020. We even hadn't been to supermarket for the last 2 years since they sold pretty much everything we needed. I watched some vlogs about neighborhoods in the US about a creator from my own country, and he praised the American neighborhood design so much that I thought it was the ideal design. Turns out I feel more comfortable here and this video made me realize that I took these blessings for granted
I remember walking to the corner store when I was growing up. When they started disappearing is when everyone stopped walking and getting to know their neighbors. Humans need community, it is essential to our health. I am sure that big business and their money fueled this change. Sad!
Funny that you also mention liquor stores as the ugly cousin of corner stores, since I was reading an article today about how in Oakland a cooperative group is partnering with liquor stores to bring fresh produce to them. Since liquor stores are more established in some of the neighborhoods is better right now to “convert” them (in a manner of speaking). Also, the money for the initiative is coming from the sugar tax, which is an amazing use for it!
Came here to say something similar. Force hood liquor stores to offer a selection of essential groceries or close them and sell the license to someone who will.
Hey, I know this isn't a current video etc, but I do want to say I appreciate you choosing a sponsor with a sustainable product and not a subscription service for cartridge razors or something. It's always complicated funding a RUclips channel, and it's a complex line to walk between RAID SHADOW LEGENDS and actual businesses you wouldn't feel guilty representing or selling the products of. Good work! Love your channel.
Videos like this make me so happy i live in the Netherlands. On my bike i am to the supermarket and back with a backpack and bike bag full of goods in 20 minutes, and thats including my time in the store if i am slow. Small groceries im back in little above 10 and i live quite far away from a supermarket relative to other people in this country. There are areas where its worse than what i have, but it will almost guaranteed be better than in the US.
That's quite the distance, by Dutch standards. 😂 I have an Albert Heijn and a Coop within walking distance, and if I went by bike I could definitely also shop at a Plus or Aldi and be back in twenty minutes. Just shows you how good we have it, and how we mostly don't even realise that's the case...
@@bonda_racing3579 Of course, but the thing that makes the Netherlands stand out is that this kind of infrastructure and city planning is applied throughout the country, not just where sheer population density requires it.
Government regulation has killed beautiful neighborhoods. Sad thing. I remember so many neighborhood grocery stores. They were everywhere, small but convenient, a great addition to any neighborhood, a thing of the past that I hope will come back. Why drive across town all the time for a few items?
A lot of people are cheap. If you are buying grocery’s for four people. You do not go to the small grocery store. You go to the large store. Large stores buy in bulk. So the costs are lower. Reason many small grocery stores closed up. Because not enough people shopped their. Most of the small grocery stores are at gas stations theses days. Because small grocery stores could not make it on there own. Plus I live in the northern part of the US. During Winter I do not like biking or walking when it is 15 degrees out. Most people do not live super close to where they work. Plenty of people stop at the bigger grocery stores on the way home from work.
@@plem7210 They do make a neighborhood into a community though! :) When done right. Problem is, when done right, it's nice. When it's nice, the structure and fixtures are of a high quality. And high quality means valuable. They're more likely to frookin get stolen! 😲 Sux when that happens! Need a lot of DO$H to do corner markets right. Otherwise, they look like drive-by ville and smell kinda weird all the time.
I live in the USA now, and this was the most shocking thing for me when I came here. Driving over 5 miles just to buy something. 🤯 Where I come from all you do is cross the street or reach the corner.
From a European perspective, the American suburb seems like a nightmare to live in. Endless rows of dull copy-pasted houses with not even a conrershop in sight? You need a car to get to anywhere else where there is an actual thing to see or do... or even just to acquire basic necessities?? No cafes, no diners? NOT EVEN AN ICE-CREAM SHOP??? Terrible.
It's so frustrated having to explain something so basic as having a corner store in your neighborhood as an alien concept when almost every country has this figured out from the most poor to the richest. Canada is just as bad as the USA though.
I spent 30+ years in Florida but moved to Australia about 5 years ago for a long term job assignment. Corner stores (and corner pubs, corner restauarants, etc) are very common here. Prices at a corner store are higher than a grocery store or supermarket, but it truly is a savings in terms of time / convenience. On Friday night if I just want a few beers, or some snacks, I can walk 5 minutes to the corner store or bottle shop and get what I need. Yeah maybe it's a few bucks more expensive but it saves me the asspain of driving to a grocery store and having to park etc. Really wish we had the same thing back in the USA. Every time I go home to see family / friends, it's like 10-15 minute drive each way every time we need to get anything.
One of my favourite childhood memories was going to the corner store a block away from home where I could buy candy or a carton of milk for my mother. It was a safe adventure for a little kid
Here in New Zealand, our corner stores are called a Dairy, they are easily walkable within 5 minutes if that to a large majority of people in the suburb. They are quite small, are not able to sell alcohol products, but do sell cigarettes. The majority of things purchased are the ease of being able to walk up and grab milk / bread and snacks / non alcoholic beverages.
My hometown is Eugene Oregon, but I live in the UK now. It's eerie how I was literally talking about that very corner store yesterday with my friends and how blessed I felt to have had it.
That's awesome. I used to live on W. Broadway about a few blocks from New Frontier. Love that place, especially the Cafe Mam coffee fresh every morning.
Growing up we lived down the road from a historic corner store and a retail convenience store. My sister and I made many a foot trip down to the local Stewart's and seeing older guys enjoying a coffee in the morning was a common sight. It's probably the thing I miss the most about moving down south.
and one day, your house burned down along with several houses as the fire started at this local bakery. 2 days later. news come out. baker was drunk or had mental issues. and also, your son and daughter were sleeping and were burned to crisp crossant. is this what you want?
@@mkhan8527 Dude, I lived in a mixed neighborhood with stores, bakeries, tortilla factories and what not. In 20+ years you know what happened? NONE OF THAT
I live in Eugene and live about a half a block from a Dari Mart and only a few blocks from Everyone’s Market and a farm stand, which is also a converted house into a store. I think that’s how they get around the zoning laws, but could be wrong.
Being an urban designer from the Netherlands this amazes me, we are so used to walk or bike to the local supermarket and I couldn't image needing a car to go get groceries or not being allowed by policies to plan local shops and restaurants.
Same over here in the UK (barring the wonderful Dutch bike-friendliness) - or at least, I can speak for England (where I live) or urban Wales (the Cardiff conurbation comes to mind) and Scotland (I've only been to Edinburgh which luckily is one of the most walkable large cities in this country). It's not unexpected to have every need of yours met by nearby shops even in far off suburbs, so unless you're like me who does hour-long supermarket marches, you can do a full round of shopping in like less than 20 mins too - heck, I still top up after a weekly shop via my corner store or local supermarket all the time. Failing that, the bus or the tram is your friend. Far too many people drive for my liking, but it's a common expectation that everyone does at least a little walking. Dutch urban design is on another level though, really damn advanced. Massive respect to you for being a part of that.
It's one of the reasons why I am beginning to consider the USA a third world country. It more closely resembles Morocco (where I used to live) and Vietnam (where I live now) than Belgium (where I lived before my parents moved to the USA) or Spain (where they moved when I was a teen).
Not being able to walk to a cafe is something I wouldn’t mind if I was in a rural estate… Kms of kms of single homes is far from rural estate and would drive me crazy
I would love a corner market. Also, I would love a little coffee shop. It would be wonderful to simply walk on down to the coffee shop and see my neighbors there so I can say hi. This needs to become a thing in America. I think it would help neighbors get to know each other instead of being strangers.
The access point detail could be such a huge game changer imo! My parents neighborhood is right smack in between TWO strip malls with resraurants, grocery stores and pharmacies but because they're surrounded on both sides by 6 lane stroads they always take their car almost 100 % of the time. If there was someway to safely make a sidewalk path into the parking lot with a roundabout or some other way I bet the whole neighborhood would actually feel safer to walk instead of drive to those stores.
With a roundabout? No. With an intersection, with traffic lights and zebras, yes. With a roundabout, no. Roundabouts are only safe if all the traffic is unimodal (read: only cars or only bicycles) but if it's plurimodal (cars and bikes and pedestrians) then it's not safe for anyone except for the cars. And that's until the trucks show up, because then the cars aren't safe anymore either. This is why the rest of the world is weaning off roundabouts.
Not even just a corner store, but also a restaurant. I also like when corner stores or shopping markets have tables to sit at. All of these things have to be present and promoted, but communities will be revived the more of them are placed.
As a European, I can't imagine a neighbourhood without corner stores. At weekends we rarely have to use the car. And even if there is no corner store, almost every suburb has a small Tesco, Billa, Spar or Penny, (they are essentially the European Walmarts and Targets, at least in my region) and they are smaller and designed differently than the conventional big stores, to fit in with the local atmosphere. Not to mention ice cream parlours, restaurants and so on. And if you want to grasp how walkable European cities really are, I once walked from a suburb of the Hungarian capital Budapest (city of 2 million) to downtown, and sidewalk was always available.
I think they could improve corner stores by having a mixed purpose. Maybe have a community center with a corner store attached to it. The community center is publicly operated and completely free. However the corner store is privately operated but with strict mandates and restrictions about marketing and what they can sell. Being located at a community center is kind of an indirect government subsidy so I don't think those rules will turn retailers off. You could perhaps take it even further by mandating they be local operated and not allowed to be part of a franchise. Maybe offer a direct subsidy if they are locally operated and take the subsidy away if a big stores tries to buy it. I think the purpose of a local store should be not to turn a profit but to meet the needs of it's community. It's physical needs, mental needs and social needs. That one of the mental needs also should be reflected in restrictions on marketing. They should be forbidden from receiving donations from large corporations or push advertising. The only advertisement allowed is for the products at the store itself.
Not sure if you covered it as I’m still listening, but I also think that corner stores and easily accessible grocery shops in America would also cut down on the wait time in lines at places like grocery stores. Going to a grocery store anywhere from 5 to 6 at night or especially the first of the month is a total nightmare even at the smallest grocers. Everyone’s going at the same time, everyone’s stocking up on a million different household goods. Easily accessible stores means more frequent trips for smaller of amounts of goods > shorter lines OR long lines that move MUCH faster > easier levels of work stress for store employees > (ideally) more frequent or steady restocking of goods > less traffic jams and lines on basic streets that really can’t handle an insane amount of cars - I mean I could go on theorizing about the very possible benefits of adopting corner stores and walkable cities in America. And for the few crazy people who don’t want those benefits… they can live in a few remaining remote suburbs and keep their cars. (And the way to deter that is to make them live even further than they are now, so the area will be a good desert lol)
I live in Delhi, India. The street my house is on has a store, grocery shop, clinic, restaurants, a bakery, hardware shop all at walking distance. taking the car to the store is something unimaginable here.
I'm from Madison & I f-ing love corner stores. There's not many, but there's one near me, and the products are usually cheaper, they're less crowded (except right after work/school) faster to get to walking or driving, and overall there's just a comfy feeling about them. Also, since they're so small, this means they may carry much less variety of products, however, they'll always sell the commonly sold good for that neighborhood, so if your culture of living matches your community, you'll usually be fine, as the store has everything you need except when you get into certain special hygiene or food products.
@@bonda_racing3579 The point isn't that US don't have corner stores. It's more like US (and Canada maybe?) are possibly the only countries where corner stores isn't a thing in a lot of cities and zones.
We have townhome apartments with a little market on one side of the block and a large park on the other side of the block. We're also considered a low income neighborhood, so for our low income family I couldn't imagine a better place to be for this part of our lives at least. AHHH New Frontier! We're in Springfield, Oregon is pretty good about our corner stores 💕
People say we need to get rid of suburbs but what we really need to do isn’t eliminate suburbs but rather go back to the 1920 style streetcar suburbs instead of continuing the 1950 style suburbs Update: I have no idea why stupid people replying to this comment think this is some argument having anything to do with race it doesn’t it’s about an urban planning style prevalent in the 1920s
I’ve seen some suburbs built with waking and biking in mind. But they are very rare. 98% of new development in suburbs is terrible. Also people like me resent them because they tend to extend how far one has to travel to return to nature from city center.
@@night6724 Don’t want it, but reality sucks here. If everyone did right and got along, chances are we could have nice things like corner shops and such. But that is not the case. Segregation started sprawl but it can also stop it too.
@@night6724 I don't have any blacks in my area for some reason, and when I asked one of my black coworkers about it he told me that blacks were not fond of the chore of taking care of a yard. I asked him if that extended to things like pools and gardening and he commented that these things were perceived by blacks to be "white" and not part of black culture. Meanwhile, I see Asian and Latino and Middle Eastern neighbors always busy planting flowers and decorating and cleaning with white families doing the same. The segregation is chosen, and it is limited to blacks only. Sorry if this offends, but if black people in the US did not follow "black" culture and acted the same as everyone else, corner shops and all the great things like streetcars, light rail, etc would be everywhere.
The best part abt my neighborhood growing up was that in a 5 minute walk from my house there was an opening in a fence that led to 7-11, McDonald’s, pizza hut, and Taco Bell.
It's nice to see you referencing two spots I used to live by, the Eugene New Frontiers and the SLO strip. I really do miss that small Grocery store in Eugene, really liked the walk and experience of it all! Thanks!
When I was on the zoning board years ago we heard an appeal from someone who wanted to open a corner store in a building that used to be ... a corner store. When it closed the site reverted to R1. The board had to go rogue and overturn the city staff determination. Apparently they thought a vacant building was preferable.
I think for corner stores to work in residential areas they need to be a) primarily grocery and similar businesses b) street-facing and c) have very little to no off-street parking and no gasoline sales. Basically they should be aimed at serving people in the neighborhood within walking distance and not people from outside the area, especially quick stop-and-go type visits. I think hours should be limited as well to prevent late-night out-of-neighborhood visits and the associated likelihood of crime from happening. By the way despite Seattle having a large percentage of single-family residential land use it does have many, many small retail areas scattered throughout the city unlike a lot of other cities with similar zoning.
you can write those restrictions into the code for residential use. I don't understand the " prevent late-night out-of-neighborhood visits and the associated likelihood of crime from happening." part though
@@PlaystationMasterPS3 We have a 7/11 with lots of parking and gas about three unwalkable blocks away from my house. Late at night it is used as a meeting point for sketchy characters from outside the neighborhood which in turn keeps locals from patronizing the 7-11. My thoughts that are that by eliminating gas, parking and late-night operations you would create a safe spot for the neighborhood.
Had me till late night. I would work late and have a store nearby open late by my house made it so easy… so many work late like nurses, truckers etc The biggest thing that helps is lots of lighting
It can be tricky though if you limit your customer base too much. It's probably about the same price for a small store to be embedded in a neighborhood versus being out along a main road with more traffic but the number of potential customers is higher along the main road.
I think it has to do with U.S. culture. There are things that exceptions are made for in order to meet another cultural or national goal. Owning your own home (and in modern America, this means a detached single-family home, far from any commercial bustle or noise) and having space between you and your neighbors is seen almost as an American birthright. Some very pro-car advocates have admitted that, yes, U.S. suburban zoning and subsidizing automobile infrastructure *is* heavy-handed government intervention in the economy, but it serves the higher goal of making Americans into "independent" landowners (and thus less dependent on the state) and it also grows the economy (at least in their estimation), so this philosophical contradiction is considered justified. Somehow they’re saying that these un-liberal and redistributive state policies make Americans *more* independent of the state. It’s a bit weird, but very "U.S.".
We have corner-stores in South African neighborhoods and they create small town relationships between store owner n local families as u can go collect a missing item and pay them the next day based on the intimate customer base. Had the same in Birmingham England as well
I have at least 6 corner stores within walking distance in PDX but they're all just junk food shops. We need more farm stand like corner stores. The one we had for 38 years on Foster left during the pandemic 😢
I mentioned to my baby boomer dad how nice it would be to have corner stores. He balked at the idea. I think he's picturing the big busy loud store instead of the quiet small convenient shop that it would be.
In europe even the smallest and poorest villages have essential stores(ABCs in hungary) in the center if it near the curch or pub and you can walk there within 15 minutes at most.
I was cooking today, and realised half way through that I was lacking an ingredient. I put my shoes on, ran around the corner to the shop, found and bought what I was missing, and got back within three minutes. Corner shops are great.
One of the best things about my LA apartment is the small neighborhood grocery on the corner of my block. It’s so convenient that it has changed how I shop - instead of stocking up on everything, it’s so nice to be able to pop down and grab some milk, pasta, or coffee whenever I need it, chat with the clerk who knows me, and get back five minutes later. Despite being small, they carry almost everything I buy regularly and rarely do I wait in line. But for my parents in their R1 neighborhood, going to the grocery store is an hour+ ordeal. Getting in the car, driving ten minutes, navigating the huge parking lot, and dealing with long checkout lines and those horrible self-checkout machines. But for them, that car-friendly store, huge parking lot, and being able to buy loads of groceries at once represents convenience.
It is hilarious for me as an Indian because here you can't walk for more than 5 minutes without encountering any sort of small business. 90% of the things that I require in daily are just a 10 minute walk from my place and even the metro and public transport is a 2 minute walk. I also have to admit that I live in a very convenient place. Many people in remote areas either have to cycle or drive to get their things done
But even there they CAN cycle to get their things. In much of North America, walking and cycling are dangerous, impossible or even illegal. There's a reason why the USA doesn't get any immigrants from developed countries anymore.
@@ixlnxs Walking and cycling in America is dangerous?? Compared to European countries, maybe yes. But here in India I dodge death everyday lol. Buses and trucks pass a couple of centimetres beside me all the time
i was always confused why america would have these huge walmarts and box stores. Here in europe they would be nowhere to be seen. Basically only small shops and occasionally a medium sized supermarket, but often several types of stores in it. But it seems obvious when you see the american zoning laws. Removing them would also reduce the monopolies of the big stores, which really is a problem in north america
In the Philippinnes, we have sari sari stores. They are small stores in residential areas that sells from snacks, cooking ingredients, cooked meals and even school materials and they are operated either infront of a house units or even a kiosk provided by a HOA. Those stores would buy from groceries or delivered by a supplier which is useful for anyone that don't need to go ouut of a village or drive to a mall as these stores are only a few blocks away.
I live in Minneapolis and am happy we got some mentions in this video, but we still have a long way to go. I live in an old, established neighborhood, but the nearest corner store and small supermarket are just *barely* a walkable distance, especially in winter. New development downtown is pretty impressive though. I lived in an apartment downtown 20 years ago and aside from a really crappy convenience store in my building, you had to leave downtown to buy groceries. Now there are about 10 times as many rental units downtown, plus two real grocery stores (a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's) and tons of new restaurants and just about a Starbucks on every block. *But* rents downtown are insane, so even with all of the new mixed use developments downtown and throughout the city, I'm still not sure how much more affordable it is to live here. In other words, still a long way to go. But it's all part of the "Minneapolis 2040" plan so I guess that's the time frame to consider.
Minneapolis recently got rid of parking minimums citywide. The rest will be based on how permissible its zoning code is. More you build, the more rent drops. Less you build the more it increases. Supply and demand.
I live in Minneapolis, too. I'm close enough to Lake Street that I have access to something like a corner store. What is sad that if you walk around these early 20th century neighborhoods, you can still see some of the old corner stores that have been converted into strange little houses.
But the change is gradually taking place in Minnesota. Eliminating single family residential housing zones which dominated Minneapolis was a big step in the right direction.
In my European country we often have main streets or squares spaced at walking/bicycle distance where a supermarket and other daily stores and services form a little integrated commercial ecosystem. It is very convenient to walk past a few shops and get the groceries, the pharmacy pickup and some fresh bread or a coffee without having to deal with traffic situations.
I think you miss a other benefit. If you have a shop or even a shop and let say a barbershop directly with in a walkable/cycle area you create a community hub. people will be drawn to go there even just to have a chat with there friends, family or even (semi) acquaintance. It creates a place to be social with in your area.
I actually think you should capitalize on that and make a mixed building. I think it would be ideal as kind of 2 buildings pushed together. A community center that is operated by the local government and a privately owned corner store attached. However while the store is owned privately the building is entirely owned by the government and they put restrictions on the store. Like they have a list of unhealthy products not allowed to be sold, have a mandate of healthy products that need to be sold and they also have severe restrictions on marketing and sponsorship. The only posters, billboards and so on that are allowed are for products that are sold at the store and they are not allowed to be too loud or obnoxious. I also think the ownership of the store should be forced to be local. Only a local is allowed to operate it and if none is forthcoming it will be government operated and also once that owner has the store they are not allowed to own any other store. I think having semi-government run establishments like this helps the functioning of capitalism. The corner store will have severe restrictions on it and have to pay rent to the government but will of course greatly benefit from the community center. That creates a cozy alternative to the sterile shopping mall and force them to step up their game.
@@sirBrouwer I have never heard of that term but maybe it is what I'm describing. I know such a thing would come with a lot of challenges but I think they are challenges worth solving. I think you should have local small stores alongside commercial enterprises. I feel capitalism has taken us about as far as it can and it's time to roll it back somewhat. In the past the government protecting sectors of the economy like this was a bad thing as it stagnated innovation but maybe that could have reached it's limit this time. Productivity has reached all time highs yet happiness has gone down. I feel we have pushed neo-liberalism too far just like how the communist pushed socialism too far. The ideal solution lies somewhere inbetween but of course is the hardest to execute.
Not having a small convenience and grocery store 5 minutes on foot is insane. I am from Europe so this is absolutely standard. Even in single family house areas.
Being from (and currently living in again) the northeast has been a blessing in some ways - namely, old towns and cities that don't have such strict R1 zoning. Where I live now, a relatively small borough in Central PA, I'm on a block where I can hit up the 7-11 and even the corner bar easily by foot. This was not as much the case when I lived in larger towns in the south, where my pedestrian inclinations made getting around inconvenient and even dangerous.
Corner stores don't need to be planned by governments; they just need not to be outlawed. And if only one store is allowed in a neighborhood, you know it's going to be more expensive than in a free market. Think of a shop located inside the lobby of a hotel.
but having 1 mega store pr 4 miles makes things cheaper? if the local store is to expensive, you go to the other local store 10-20 minutes away and most people like to have neighbors that don't despises them
One of my favorite things from when I visited Europe was the numerous local markets, like the SPAR stores in Salzburg. The ones I went to were a bit bigger than what you're describing for corner stores, a 1 story building taking up the land for 3-6 small houses. I could see people reasonably walking to the store and doing all their shopping there. They also had a bakery and deli in it as well.
I live in the UK in a small town doing deliveries and having corner stores really helps as it gives me chance to get some food while on shift. I do wish the us had more of them. There are so many benefits. Great video as always
After moving from Queens, New York to Austin, Texas, I now live in a complex that is about a 20 minute walk from an HEB. I'm told this is "good for Texas", but in my old neighborhood I lived within a 5 minute walk of 2 great corner stores - one was more upscale, run by a Turkish family and sold specialty goods from the Middle East and Eastern Europe as well as lots of fresh produce, while the other was a bodega, open 24 hours, where I mostly bought milk, beer, snack foods, and household goods like toilet paper and dish soap. I shopped at each at least twice a week and most of my visits were for a single item, on the way home from the train, bus, or nearby parking lot. Now I have to be very conscientious of what I need when I go to HEB once every ten or so days, because every shopping trip is an hour+ affair
The corner store near my best friend's house is one of the places where we go the most when I'm in their part of town. It's become a staple of my social life, its food a staple of their diet, and my friend group has made so many great memories there. I wholeheartedly agree with the points that you made and wish that building them in more types of zones were legal, too.
The planners are finally starting to realize thier horrible thing known as zoning. Zoning makes cities less sustainable, less healthy, and kills local business. It’s even counterproductive to the outdated 1950’s goals, it made neighbourhoods less peaceful, (when you have to drive), people more depressed, and quality of life lower. Even commercially uses are mixed. Doesn’t matter if you need a quick snack or buying up industrial machinery, it’s the same horrible suburbia with it’s massive unsafe parking lots and wide stroads. They could fire every planner and remove every zoning law and we would have sustainable, peaceful walkable, areas with cheaper housing.
As a guy from not the greatest country to live in, I can't believe how dumb zoning laws are in the supposed best nation in the world. I discussed with many Americans on a certain anonymous message board on this subject, and it's baffling for me that they defend this! One dude was literally disgusted by the sole thought of having grocery store within a suburb - I'm not making this up. Let's take a look at my hometown of Siedlce, Poland. The city grew rapidly from mid-1970s onwards and expanded in various directions, most of the developments were the so-called "commie blocks", but south of the railway station there was a strong single family home development going on, and this is the area I live in. There are three grocery stores within walking distance, a school and kindergarten also within walking or biking distance too. And aside from these, there are other businesses just next door like car repair shops, barbers, gas stations - you name them, as well as fire department (firemen are literally my neighbors) or a children's playground. And while the urban public transport is quite poor (so poor that I'd rather ride a bike), the neighborhood has easy access to railway as mentioned earlier. And come to think about it that this can't be done in the most powerful, rich and best country on the planet.
The more I learn about the standards of living in the US the stronger my happier I become knowing I'll never have to live there. I have 5 fairly big grocery stores and 4 small ones in walking distance from my apartment. None of them takes more than 5-10 minutes to reach.
Suburban cities vs urban cities. I live in the US and have two grocery stores, a pharmacy, train station, shops, and restaurants within a few minute's walk from me. New suburban development is wasteland of car oriented hellscapes though and we need to fix it.
@@je6a478 It varies from neighborhood to neighborhood too. I live in Seattle which was highlighted in the video and it's definitely got waaayyyy too much single family zoning but I chose to live in a neighborhood/street a bit closer to some of the shops so I'm able to get access to 3-4 grocery stores and a variety of other businesses within 5-10min walk even despite the horrible zoning. Some neighborhoods are better than others and the line is probably correlated to the age of the neighborhood which affects zoning and construction over the decades.
As a Latin American I find the absence of corner stores in NA cities disturbing. I mean, I have grown up in a neighbourhood that has plenty of corner stores hosting: restaurants, bakeries, drug stores, hair salons, Cyber cafes ,etc all within walking distance, some are even a block away from my home ( a block is aprox 150 mts 500 ft here in Lima).
I have fond memories to the corner store that was near the grade school that I went to. I was so sad when it closed. The closet to a corner store in my area is a CVS that is a 5 min walk, so I use that as my corner store.
As an European, I never understood this single type zonings. You want diversity, homes, offices and stores belong together. Then again it's hard to imagine a city built around cars instead of pedestrians. Glad this is changing, good job,US!
I think that's the issue. The folks who want this type of zoning do not want ANY diversity. They consider it a danger to their way of life. For them, homogeneity is safer.
as an American i can say that 3 generations have now grown up with this suburb residential only mindset its incredibly difficult to change it, especially when many people see anything other then a car as dangerous, either bc of other cars or crime (which is sometimes a valid concern).
If it is changing, it is only changing slowly. Most Americans don't want that sort of community diversity and community collectiveness, or at least they don't actively pursue it. In most American cities there's been several generations that have mostly lived in single family residential exclusive zones and who commute to work mostly be car and also using cars for their shopping trips for sundry goods and green groceries to locations at times half an hour's drive from where they live. To them, it is just the norm. It will take a long time for that sort of outlook to change.
@@sharpestcookieinthetoolbox9742 Statistically, homogeneity is safer. Diversity in of itself is not a strength, it can bring all kinds of conflicts and strife no one wants or benefits from.
![Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05]](/img/1.gif)
One argument I forgot to make in the main video: With so many people working from home, a corner store or cafe becomes even MORE useful.
Anything giving a sense of connectedness to one's immediate surroundings is an improvement to the suburbs
There's a traveloge on my block. It's the only business surrounded by apartment towers and townhouses. and I wish the city would buy the property and rebuild it, put a corner store and a daytime cafe/nighttime bar in the front, with the traveloge behind/above. Like. Three entrances with the center one going back to the hotel and a business on each side. I would love that. but I don't know if that's even possible.
Also, can a city government just outright own a business? That would be kinda interesting if it was a bar owned by the city lol.
@@IanZainea1990 Cities generally don't own businesses like that. They don't like to compete with private industry.
@@CityBeautiful Cool... I'll send this video to my councilman, he probably won't watch, but at least it's something! Maybe when I finally have time to show up to a council meeting I can bring this up... other things to bring up too though :/ Hmmm.
Absolutely agree...corner store
In the UK, one of the first questions anyone asks when choosing somewhere to live is "how far is the nearest shop?". It's considered *extremely* undesirable to have to go a long way to the nearest place you can buy milk. The fact that "it's nice to have a nearby shop where you can buy essential groceries without a car" has to be explained blows my mind.
Where grew up in the UK was around 5000 people in 1.5km^2
There we had:
5 takeaways
3 local stores
3 Barbers/hairdressers
2 pubs
2 sport clubs
2 Parks
2 Allotments
2 primary schools (elementary)
1 Post Office
1 Church
1 secondary school + 6th form (High school)
1 growing business park
1 Library
we also had a bus every 15 mins between 2 local towns from 6am-12am and every 30 mins to the nearest city
Americans are taught to believe in stranger danger. Some of them will call the police if they see an unfamiliar car pass their house.
@@daveharrison84 Given history the concern is well warranted.
@@starventure history?
@@starventure history of indoctrination by those who wish to sell more unsustainable lifestyles
You and Not Just Bikes are truly helping to educate Americans and push for real change in the US. Thank you
Hell yeah!
Yeah, they really brought me down a rabbit hole I didn't know I needed!
Not only Americans, I have always wondered why US cities look like this
Uytae Lee's about here urban planning videos are also pretty good.
@@Big_Gulps_Huh same! I never understood why my hometown of Istanbul apealed to me when I was born in a far more prosperous city such as Toronto.
Having a corner store you can walk to from your house makes a world of difference in a youngster's life. I was completely stranded at home until I could drive because it was over two miles to the nearest store, despite living in a suburb of 20,000 people, and going there would mean crossing a couple busy roads and one busy and narrow bridge frequented by dump trucks.
Same, except my suburb was over 200,000 people. Nearest store was 2.3 miles and hilly.
Conversely, when I was growing up, we had a few stores that it was possible to visit while walking, as we lived fairly close to the town square. Need some hardware supplies? Fabric for crafts? Fresh-baked donuts? Just walk over to the town square. The hardware store is gone, but the town square there still exists, and has plenty of businesses. More now than there were at the time, I think.
@@gutyhuy3817 And people wonder why traffic is so bad, lmao.
Same here. And imagine having a crazy parent/parents and how isolating that can be.
Suburbs literally turn US children into people under house arrest. Their crime?: non-applicable.
I live in a suburb of 10,000 or so people.
Within 5 minutes walking I have 3 supermarkets, book store, pharmacy, 2 hairdressers, 4 general stores, pet store, 2 clothing, florist, garage, bike shop, phone shop, restaurant, bar, fast food and dry cleaner.
It's really not that hard. I think this is true for all but the most rural areas of my country (the Netherlands). Kids go to the store on their own well before the age of 10.
Imagine allowing people who are in the lower and middle classes an opportunity to own a corner store. This would allow families to earn more money than working at a giant box store for minimum wage.
The weird thing about this is that most lower class people live in places that do have corner stores. It is mostly middle class and higher that live in places that do not have corner stores.
@@evancombs5159 they do, but unfortunately they are usually liquor stores carrying only alcohol and things like chips and candy. Not things like fresh bread or things like that. Nothing healthy like vegetables or fruits or juice or milk
@@bayareanewman1566 that varies quite a bit, but prices are definitely at a premium in urban food deserts. I'm down in SD and it's mostly 7-11 franchises owned by various immigrant groups. They've got this tacky new look inside but they carry more groceries than they used to. But even the old school bodegas have some fresh items like bag lettuce and some handy fruits.
Essentially, Japanese family stores in residential areas.
Corner stores also employ people for a minimum wage.
This is so unsustainable in every way. Cant believe that people don’t demand change. So happy to see your video.
They don't because they care about their property values way too much.
@@ianhomerpura8937 But wouldn't a small store in the neighbourhood boost property value? I recently moved to another city (within Europe) and when looking for a new flat, every single announcement I looked at was talking about how great the connection to public transit and how many shops and restaurants are in the neighbourhood. Are Americans really that different, that something that is the main selling point for a flat on one continent is something that decreases property value on another continent? That wouldn't make any sense.
@@beckobert You’re not American so you don’t get it. Owning a single family home in the suburbs is the American Dream. You are considered a success if you achieve this. America is a massive country so we have lots of land for nice big houses.
@@beckobert Unfortunately, no. The stigma in suburban America is that only the poor (especially poor people of color) need, use, or live near corner stores. The affluent whites moved to suburbia so they didn't have to live in urban areas, and corner stores bring a hint of "urbanness" (diversity) to their neighborhoods. To them, that means crime, and that means corner stores greatly decrease property values because the stores attract "unsavory elements" and threaten the sense of peace and safety of locals. You have to keep in mind that some people live next to the same neighbors for 30 years here and don't even know their names - and prefer it that way. But anyway, affluent folks can afford to drive out of their labyrinthine, McMansion-filled neighborhoods in their massive new cars to get whatever they want on a whim (or pay for delivery) and like the luxury of doing so. Or they consider it a small price to pay to keep the crime that stores bring on the "other side of town". The corner stores are typically gas stations, not standalone entities, and are a minimum of 15-20 minutes away from subdivisions (speaking as a person of color living in a place like this in Southern California)
Almost forgot to mention this is an area with over 200k people and we have no real public transit system except for special services the disabled can call. (because their thought is only poor people use public transit and it will bring in more beggars and crime)
@@sharpestcookieinthetoolbox9742 You have a point there on public transportation. Bus routes are very limited or non-existent in suburbia because people who live there have their own cars and don't need to take the bus. If they had to they'd most likely call a cab or rideshare. In the majority of the US, the main purpose of public transportation is to target the young and/or poor citizens in urban areas and many can't even afford a car.
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have local shops that provide most of my basic needs within walking distance. It makes getting in the car so much more frustrating!
I live in the center of downtown in my city. I love being able to accomplish my errands on foot. Don’t own a car anymore.
@@jillengel4124 Amen -- I still own a car but only drive two or three times/week. I walk to work, and can get most of what I need on foot. Driving in traffic hurts my soul.
A street with nothing in walking distance feels like a form of prison to me. What have we done to deserve this.
voting Reagan to the Presidency is one
You can thank corporate greed
@@ianhomerpura8937baby boomers did that just like they ruined millennials chances of not being forced to live with them narcissists?!
As an European, I just can't imagine a neighbourhood without any corner store. Seriously, Americans, stop be so stubborn with zoning, and either dump it, or start do it the Japanese way (the American way is a white list of permitted activities, all the rest being forbidden ; the Japanese way is a black list of forbidden activities, all the rest being authorised, which could also be called "freedom").
Freedom is not having to live near this: ruclips.net/video/DpWNUz3P0I0/видео.html
I saw a tweet the other day praising the benefits of living in London-they had begun to toast a bagel, but forgot they were out of cream cheese, so went out to get some, and were back before the bagel had popped up.
The convenience is crazy. You're less likely to have the problem of having food in your fridge / cupboards that's past its best as you just buy stuff as and when you need it. Meanwhile if you do a big shop once a week, you have to guesstimate what you will actually use.
@@starventure how would not having zoning issues cause a place to become the hood?
@@starventure So just... don't lmao
My hood have 2 comer stores in each coner
This is unbelievable from an outside perspective, being in the UK with land-use planning rather than zoning. It's such a weird concept, that you can only have a limited type of housing and local retail being ostracized. Not just that but in older victorian inner city areas (and places victorians would describe as suburbs along old tram and train lines, Cathays and Plasnewydd in Cardiff are great examples), there will be a street of shops as well that provide almost anything, from carpet shops, convenience stores, pubs, clubs, cocktail bars, community centres, Shisha bars, nail saloons, massage parlours (if you get what I mean), takeways, restaurants, barbers, home appliances, jewellers, pharmacies, estate agents etc. Almost anything you need is just walking distance away and almost all independent, catering to the local community i.e. if the population is elderly or of a different ethnic background/religion or students, you have an entire shopping area that can cater too specific needs and wants.
It’s a result of USA racism. Local laws to exclude poor and minority groups from white neighborhoods.
Here in Northern Ireland (the place u colonised and still occupy) we have American style suburbs, but far uglier. Every wall has graffiti. Either Protestant graffiti, catholic graffiti, or art graffiti. Also we have 2 train lines, 0 in my county.
@@haroldinho9930 The difference will be, is that you will still have convience stores and less stratified housing types, as no zoning in Northern Ireland. Just looked it up, I'm amazed at how much of the railway in Northern Ireland has been dismantled. Also seen as you brought it up technically a majority of the people in Northern Ireland want to be in the United Kingdom, so democratically they want to stay, but if that changes of course I'd support it.
The zoning is pretty much only a suburban thing. Inner cities will resemble what you're used to.
@@Alex-cw3rz i am shocked an appalled that you single handedly colonized and occupied Northern Ireland but I guess there had to be someone to blame. Also a little impressed. I mean wow how old are you. I am glad you been called on it though cos it means i am not to blame, thk god.
I remember when I was 11, I had an American penpal from Califorina. I told him I was going to the shop. Walked to the shop, bought some sweets and a drink and walked back in total about 5 minutes. When I came back he said "I thought you was going to the store" which I said I did. Then for the next half hour I had to explain the concept of an off license, the thing that blew his mind is that I can walk anywhere, to school and pretty much the opposite side of town if I had a phone on me. Looking back I can understand why he was taken a back and feel abit sad that he probably grew up in some culture dead suburb.
how did the letters get back and forth so fast?
@@citizenstranger it was over Skype lol
Many Americans will only experience the benefits of a genuinely walkable neighbourhood if they go to college and live on or near campus.
@@callumtyler1998 of course 😏
@@liamness I *wish* I had something even close to that. While my campus itself is certainly walkable, all of the college-run food places aren't open quite as late as I'd like, and the nearest grocery/goods store is a massive Walmart separated from the college by a 5-lane highway. So if you want toilet paper for your bathroom you're going to have to have a car, or have a roommate or friend who does. Sure, there's a bus stop, but the student passes are expensive and not advertised at all.
This is the opposite in Mexico. You have a corner store literally in every corner. It’s just simple and efficiently useful.
Brazil too
Nowadays Oxxos are taking over most corner stores in cities. But yeah, we still get a convinience store within range.
You also have cartels to deal with sooo...
@@henrycrabs3497 No correlation
@@elciervoparaguayo3756 cope
As someone with lifelong vision issues, and even post surgeries I lack binocular vision so STILL can't drive, a corner store type situation would be a Godsend to get those more frequent incidentals.
Think outside the box just a touch and have those stores also act as pickup points and you'd have something that caters to the disabled, elderly, and any other segment with mobility issues to get more of their tasks done with less need to burdin those around them.
I have MANY ideas on these sort of 'pocket retail' segments, but the question is how would they be defined for the sake of zoning, permits, and regulation? Single story structures that take up no more space than surrounding residential lots with no more than x amount of parking on lot?
In Detroit we have liquor corner stores 😅😪🤧
My spouse struggles to drive for the same reasons. Selecting a place that was safe to walk to some stores/groceries/etc was essential.
You have to look to live in:
Really old traditional neighborhoods built pre WWII.
Near Pre WWII constructed universities or college towns (bonus many have free buss service)
Some new urbanist developments
Some downtowns (a good deal have been ruined)
Move outside of the third-world oligarchy of the US into developed Europe who cares about everyone, not just the rich who have cars
This. So much THIS.
Thank you for sharing. I have limited vision and cannot drive as well. It's funny, in all of the videos like this that I have watched and in all their comment sections, I have never come across someone who brought this fact up. I honestly think people take the option to drive completely for granted, and don't even consider that maybe this kind of "conveinence" could be the difference between severe disadvantage or independence for many. According to my state, I don't "officially" have a disability, but it seems that they don't care about my safety or others'. Either way, however, I would go so far to say that not being able to drive in the US IS a disability in itself, and its about time for some representation.
You're not alone. I'm in the same boat
In the UK, corner shops have evolved quite a bit the last few years - largely because big supermarkets have been taking over. They're now much more than just a shop. Often they'll have a post office inside but also a drop-off/collection point for couriers, often a small hot food counter, hot drinks machine, cash machine/ATM and a tonne of other services that can no longer be justified in having it's own shop. That's a double positive for owners, because they're paid for those services and it brings customers in
Plus they'll usually be in a row of a few shops, usually a fast food place (typically fish and chips or Chinese food) and then maybe a charity shop, computer/phone repair, hairdresser/barber etc. So a lot more than just a shop is usually less than a 5 minute walk if you're in an urban area. It's a good opportunity for pretty much everyone to get some exercise, fresh air etc.
When I worked at the Coop down the road from home, in 2 years we added:
Amazon Hub Lockers
Starbucks coffee machine
Hot Food
DPD collection/drop-off
Click and Collect shopping
Vegan and Organic food
Free-from Food
we already had an ATM and a bakery beforehand
Oddly enough that reminds me of America’s pharmacies haha
Also exactly what has happened in Japan.
We have them here, most gasoline stations have food/drinks/milk/lottery and car products/hot coffee at the least.
@@Swiminatub 😎Well yes.... If your pharmacies were within walking distance of their customers. 🤩
The thing that amazes me is how that corner store you showed came from the lot of a single family home. The inside looks huge.
We really should have these everywhere
Living in Portland, my house was built in what was formally the back garden of the house in front. Honestly it's great, both houses still have plenty of space and my house is nicely set back from the road so it's very safe for my daughter to play.
Thank you for explaining how walkable development takes cars off the road. “Not having parking will create too much parking” is one of the most common complaints I hear about infill proposals in my sprawl city. It’s sad how many people in the US can’t even seem to imagine a world where every errand doesn’t require a 30 minute car trip
It does not necessarily. If I commute I can get my groceries while driving home - no need to walk to the shop and I would not do it.
Same for living in smaller villages with steep slopes where I theoretically could go to the store in 15 minutes, but bringing everything back is a big chore, so I use the car once a week.
So most shops that you'd consider a "corner store" - aka discounter supermarkets like Aldi have parking spaces, even in cities, except for the very inner city.
Btw, I live in Europe.
Tiendas or Kioscos (Corner shops) are a really important part of neighborhoods here in Latin America. You can go walking to get your groceries and daily products for many things like cooking and cleaning. Also, many people, specially in small towns and neighborhoods gather together in these places, working even sometimes as meeting points. Even children can go around walking and buy things if it's just down the street.
That’s one of many things why I love Mexico. Even in suburb residential areas there are at least a few convince store and also small business like a taco shop or hotdog stand. But here in Phoenix nope all driving. Ugh!!!
@@mono1885 you act like America isn’t made primarily of immigrants and didn’t bring their own culture: Germans, French, Italians the list can go on…
@@mono1885 You mean the "american dream" where yu have to be asleep in order to believe it?
@@mono1885 What do you mean, there’s tons of Mexicans in California?
We are grateful in Mexico of that.
I didnt know I missed this until now. When I was a kid in elementary I lived near a corner store. When we would have cookouts we would walk to it for juices, beer, and snacks. The owners and workers knew me enough as a child that once when I snuck out of the house at age five ( I have no memory of it but heard stories) they gave me a juice box and sent me home. It eventual upadated to food/taco place instore then had a subway b4 a convenient store out competed it and the store was demolished. I miss it now. The house we lived in then, had three units: the main one for my grandmother and the other two was for her kids who started families to use till they saved enough to buy property and a house. So we would visit even after we moved out and the corner store was still used. Now we live in a single family home less than a mile and a half away from a walmart and HEB food store where we never walk to because of the parking lots cars and no sidewalks. You made me all nogolistic.
Move if you can. Go the places that have corner stores. People need to stop acting like single family hours are a desirable destination or goal in life.
@@djwestbrook36 Well they are a goal. The American Dream is owning a single family home buddy. Don’t like it? Move to Europe or Asia!
@Zaydan Naufal That is true in some major city areas, but there are still some mid sized cities that are still relatively affordable.
You are awesome for doing a video about this. I am currently trying to convince city council to allow small scale commercial in neighborhoods in my city right now. It's slow, but it'd be incredible.
Again thank you so much for putting out this video :)
Hope it goes well!
Good luck
Godspeed
I think a lot of community member must start to do this!
How's that going?
after watching your videos I am so more aware of my surroundings. I am so use to not having a cornerstone that last weekend when I needed some milk I first thought of how I have to go get my car, drive 5 minutes, get out to go inside ect ect. And it just sounded the worse. But then I remembered our new neighborhood had a corner store so I was to pop over for milk and it took me less then 5 minutes. It was amazing and my day whole day was derailed over milk. So happy to see a whole video about this.
I live a mostly single family home neighborhood thats very suburban. But the streets are traffic calmed and have low speed limits so you lots of people walking and on bikes. And there's (for some reason) a person who turned the first story of their 2 story home into a cafe, which is very popular (especially on weekends).
Whenever I go there or walk by, I am just shocked that people are so opposed to this kind of development in their neighborhoods.
Government seems to love to kill small business. Sad thing. I remember when Dad took the car to a one-man shop with one lift. There he walked the underneath of the car and asked and answered questions as to the maintenance. So much better than taking a car to a shop where you only get to talk to someone at a desk about your car and you have no contact with the mechanic, and you get charged for who knows what.
It isn’t that governments love it, it’s that politicians love the money that big corporations give them
This kind of content simultaneously makes me so happy that things could be different, but it also makes me so sad that the place I live is so unlivable, awful, depressing, and disconnected/atomised. I want to move somewhere else so bad, I hate how I have to drive everywhere to do anything or rely on deliveries...
Another big issue is the lack of sidewalks in many US neighborhoods. I have a small Safeway about a 5 minute walk away but I drive because we are connected by a 45 mph arterial with no sidewalks for 2/3rds of that distance. Normally one would petition the city to put in sidewalks but US cities are constantly short of money and it's hard to argue for spending money on sidewalks when money for the poor/homeless and additional police officers is in short supply.
Stop pretending you don’t know why people don’t want sidewalks in front of their house.
@@starventure I have one in front of my house and It majorly improves my ability to go on walks.
@@ProvenScroll It makes it easy for your abode to get scoped and sized up.
@@starventure it also makes it easier for kids to walk to the park. Stop clutching pearls
@@BluePieNinjaTV Kids can still walk to each others houses without sidewalks. They do it all the time. Stop trying to urbanize the countryside.
Here in India, there are grocery/stationary/fastfood shops in every corner of streets. Our 3 direct neighbours are a grocery shop, a stationary shop and a fast food shop.
The grocery shop is so close that I shout out from my house to pack stuff in advance.
There's also a tea shop, a tailor, a flower shop, a medical shop, 4 more grocery shops, 2 more fast food shop, a saloon, a govt primary school, a cement & brick shop and many more such shops all within 3 minutes of walking distance.
@Zaydan Naufal
Cities like Mumbai and Kolkata (where I live) are famous for being unplanned tho. Also construction takes years and decades to complete.
Delhi, Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad are more planned cities and have better transportation.
@@RealManasBose Calling Bangalore a planned city is one of the greatest jokes I've ever heard on my life.
This actually makes me glad that I live in SF where even the most "sprawly/car-centric" parts of the city still have really solid corner stores.
I visit San fransico it’s so nice that there are stores everywhere and don’t even need a car to explore the city but if it wasn’t so expensive I would have thought about moving there. I guess freedom doesn’t really exist in the US when there are so many restrictions and can’t even have a simple grocery store just 10 houses down your street.
Hello neighbor. I'm in Berkeley and within a three minute walk of my house have two corner stores, two coffee houses and six restaurants. It is five minutes to two pharmacies and ten minutes to two humongous markets. I mean they carry six kinds of bananas.
Would you let an 8 yo kid walk to that corner store by themselves? Keep hearing about all the crime in SF.
That's what I really like about SF. Everything is within walking distance and public transportation is abundant, despite the locals hating on it. I live and grew up in Northwest Florida and you will need a car just to safely get around and many jobs out there expect you to have reliable transportation.
It makes me really sad that the only halfway liveable, lively, non-sprawling US cities are all really expensive or have massive social problems, or both. Yanks do know how to build decent cities otherwise.
The conspiracy theorist in me is thinking that it's a scheme to price ordinary working people outside of actually liveable urban areas and launch them into the arms of suburban hell, and for said suburbia to also fulfill the desires of the wealthy suburbanites.
I love living in the city and being able to walk to multiple grocery stores that are 2-10 min away. So much more convenient than one massive weekly grocery run in the SUV.
I often hear Americans referring to suburban areas as "safe" or "good for children" but I really think this view is stunted. Obviously there are unsafe urban areas, but I feel like what these people are talking about isn't safety, it's isolation. Like you're supposed to raise kids in a restricted area, keeping them from unwanted influences so they won't know that you're a terrible control freak of a parent.
Facts
😎 Absolutely true. In America, 10 is the new 2. And by that I mean that 10-year-old kids in America have as little freedom to play, experiment and learn as 2-year-olds elsewhere. 🤩
@@ixlnxs exactly it's terrible this is why everyone is so ignorant of the outside world its because they were raised like that
So true. That's how people thought in the 60's and they don't dare to realize suburbs are unsustainably expensive and isolating. Suburban life causes alzheimers
@@ricardoh87 yes
The neighborhoods in my country have at least 2 convenience stores and even farmer markets. So shopping for resources is super easy especially during quarantine times, we had vendors who sell groceries so we didn't even have to leave our house that much in 2020. We even hadn't been to supermarket for the last 2 years since they sold pretty much everything we needed. I watched some vlogs about neighborhoods in the US about a creator from my own country, and he praised the American neighborhood design so much that I thought it was the ideal design. Turns out I feel more comfortable here and this video made me realize that I took these blessings for granted
Just sent this to my local city planner, hoping to make a change here in the US.
I remember walking to the corner store when I was growing up. When they started disappearing is when everyone stopped walking and getting to know their neighbors. Humans need community, it is essential to our health. I am sure that big business and their money fueled this change. Sad!
Funny that you also mention liquor stores as the ugly cousin of corner stores, since I was reading an article today about how in Oakland a cooperative group is partnering with liquor stores to bring fresh produce to them. Since liquor stores are more established in some of the neighborhoods is better right now to “convert” them (in a manner of speaking). Also, the money for the initiative is coming from the sugar tax, which is an amazing use for it!
Liquor. A drinkable source of evil...
They should also have those good cooking wines though.
@@ianhomerpura8937 That would depend on the state.
Came here to say something similar. Force hood liquor stores to offer a selection of essential groceries or close them and sell the license to someone who will.
What fruits and veggies go with hard liquor?
Hey, I know this isn't a current video etc, but I do want to say I appreciate you choosing a sponsor with a sustainable product and not a subscription service for cartridge razors or something.
It's always complicated funding a RUclips channel, and it's a complex line to walk between RAID SHADOW LEGENDS and actual businesses you wouldn't feel guilty representing or selling the products of.
Good work! Love your channel.
Videos like this make me so happy i live in the Netherlands. On my bike i am to the supermarket and back with a backpack and bike bag full of goods in 20 minutes, and thats including my time in the store if i am slow. Small groceries im back in little above 10 and i live quite far away from a supermarket relative to other people in this country. There are areas where its worse than what i have, but it will almost guaranteed be better than in the US.
That's quite the distance, by Dutch standards. 😂 I have an Albert Heijn and a Coop within walking distance, and if I went by bike I could definitely also shop at a Plus or Aldi and be back in twenty minutes. Just shows you how good we have it, and how we mostly don't even realise that's the case...
@@night6724 and some people do not. Might as well give opportunities for both to thrive.
@@night6724 Why is it a terrible country? Seems a lot better than the US to me.
Dude have you heard fo NYC? We have corner stores around every block! The U.S isn't all like florida all suburbs.
@@bonda_racing3579 Of course, but the thing that makes the Netherlands stand out is that this kind of infrastructure and city planning is applied throughout the country, not just where sheer population density requires it.
Government regulation has killed beautiful neighborhoods. Sad thing. I remember so many neighborhood grocery stores. They were everywhere, small but convenient, a great addition to any neighborhood, a thing of the past that I hope will come back. Why drive across town all the time for a few items?
A lot of people are cheap. If you are buying grocery’s for four people. You do not go to the small grocery store. You go to the large store. Large stores buy in bulk. So the costs are lower. Reason many small grocery stores closed up. Because not enough people shopped their. Most of the small grocery stores are at gas stations theses days. Because small grocery stores could not make it on there own. Plus I live in the northern part of the US. During Winter I do not like biking or walking when it is 15 degrees out. Most people do not live super close to where they work. Plenty of people stop at the bigger grocery stores on the way home from work.
@@plem7210 They do make a neighborhood into a community though! :) When done right.
Problem is, when done right, it's nice. When it's nice, the structure and fixtures are of a high quality. And high quality means valuable. They're more likely to frookin get stolen! 😲 Sux when that happens!
Need a lot of DO$H to do corner markets right. Otherwise, they look like drive-by ville and smell kinda weird all the time.
I live in the USA now, and this was the most shocking thing for me when I came here. Driving over 5 miles just to buy something. 🤯 Where I come from all you do is cross the street or reach the corner.
From a European perspective, the American suburb seems like a nightmare to live in. Endless rows of dull copy-pasted houses with not even a conrershop in sight? You need a car to get to anywhere else where there is an actual thing to see or do... or even just to acquire basic necessities?? No cafes, no diners? NOT EVEN AN ICE-CREAM SHOP??? Terrible.
It's so frustrated having to explain something so basic as having a corner store in your neighborhood as an alien concept when almost every country has this figured out from the most poor to the richest. Canada is just as bad as the USA though.
I spent 30+ years in Florida but moved to Australia about 5 years ago for a long term job assignment. Corner stores (and corner pubs, corner restauarants, etc) are very common here. Prices at a corner store are higher than a grocery store or supermarket, but it truly is a savings in terms of time / convenience.
On Friday night if I just want a few beers, or some snacks, I can walk 5 minutes to the corner store or bottle shop and get what I need. Yeah maybe it's a few bucks more expensive but it saves me the asspain of driving to a grocery store and having to park etc.
Really wish we had the same thing back in the USA. Every time I go home to see family / friends, it's like 10-15 minute drive each way every time we need to get anything.
One of my favourite childhood memories was going to the corner store a block away from home where I could buy candy or a carton of milk for my mother. It was a safe adventure for a little kid
Here in New Zealand, our corner stores are called a Dairy, they are easily walkable within 5 minutes if that to a large majority of people in the suburb. They are quite small, are not able to sell alcohol products, but do sell cigarettes. The majority of things purchased are the ease of being able to walk up and grab milk / bread and snacks / non alcoholic beverages.
My hometown is Eugene Oregon, but I live in the UK now. It's eerie how I was literally talking about that very corner store yesterday with my friends and how blessed I felt to have had it.
That's awesome. I used to live on W. Broadway about a few blocks from New Frontier. Love that place, especially the Cafe Mam coffee fresh every morning.
Growing up we lived down the road from a historic corner store and a retail convenience store. My sister and I made many a foot trip down to the local Stewart's and seeing older guys enjoying a coffee in the morning was a common sight. It's probably the thing I miss the most about moving down south.
Legalize neighborhood bakeries! Most times I don't buy bread because I need to drive 30 min round trip for a freaking loaf.
and one day, your house burned down along with several houses as the fire started at this local bakery. 2 days later. news come out. baker was drunk or had mental issues. and also, your son and daughter were sleeping and were burned to crisp crossant. is this what you want?
@@mkhan8527 Dude, I lived in a mixed neighborhood with stores, bakeries, tortilla factories and what not. In 20+ years you know what happened? NONE OF THAT
I live in Eugene and live about a half a block from a Dari Mart and only a few blocks from Everyone’s Market and a farm stand, which is also a converted house into a store. I think that’s how they get around the zoning laws, but could be wrong.
Being an urban designer from the Netherlands this amazes me, we are so used to walk or bike to the local supermarket and I couldn't image needing a car to go get groceries or not being allowed by policies to plan local shops and restaurants.
Same over here in the UK (barring the wonderful Dutch bike-friendliness) - or at least, I can speak for England (where I live) or urban Wales (the Cardiff conurbation comes to mind) and Scotland (I've only been to Edinburgh which luckily is one of the most walkable large cities in this country). It's not unexpected to have every need of yours met by nearby shops even in far off suburbs, so unless you're like me who does hour-long supermarket marches, you can do a full round of shopping in like less than 20 mins too - heck, I still top up after a weekly shop via my corner store or local supermarket all the time. Failing that, the bus or the tram is your friend. Far too many people drive for my liking, but it's a common expectation that everyone does at least a little walking.
Dutch urban design is on another level though, really damn advanced. Massive respect to you for being a part of that.
It's one of the reasons why I am beginning to consider the USA a third world country. It more closely resembles Morocco (where I used to live) and Vietnam (where I live now) than Belgium (where I lived before my parents moved to the USA) or Spain (where they moved when I was a teen).
Not being able to walk to a cafe is something I wouldn’t mind if I was in a rural estate…
Kms of kms of single homes is far from rural estate and would drive me crazy
@@ixlnxs you move alot
@@ixlnxs Go to hell.
I would love a corner market. Also, I would love a little coffee shop. It would be wonderful to simply walk on down to the coffee shop and see my neighbors there so I can say hi. This needs to become a thing in America. I think it would help neighbors get to know each other instead of being strangers.
I live in a flats building with a cafe at floor level… some people still don’t say hi!
The access point detail could be such a huge game changer imo! My parents neighborhood is right smack in between TWO strip malls with resraurants, grocery stores and pharmacies but because they're surrounded on both sides by 6 lane stroads they always take their car almost 100 % of the time. If there was someway to safely make a sidewalk path into the parking lot with a roundabout or some other way I bet the whole neighborhood would actually feel safer to walk instead of drive to those stores.
I expect your parents, like most adults with a car, have no desire to walk anywhere ever.
With a roundabout? No. With an intersection, with traffic lights and zebras, yes. With a roundabout, no. Roundabouts are only safe if all the traffic is unimodal (read: only cars or only bicycles) but if it's plurimodal (cars and bikes and pedestrians) then it's not safe for anyone except for the cars. And that's until the trucks show up, because then the cars aren't safe anymore either. This is why the rest of the world is weaning off roundabouts.
Not even just a corner store, but also a restaurant. I also like when corner stores or shopping markets have tables to sit at. All of these things have to be present and promoted, but communities will be revived the more of them are placed.
As a European, I can't imagine a neighbourhood without corner stores. At weekends we rarely have to use the car. And even if there is no corner store, almost every suburb has a small Tesco, Billa, Spar or Penny, (they are essentially the European Walmarts and Targets, at least in my region) and they are smaller and designed differently than the conventional big stores, to fit in with the local atmosphere. Not to mention ice cream parlours, restaurants and so on. And if you want to grasp how walkable European cities really are, I once walked from a suburb of the Hungarian capital Budapest (city of 2 million) to downtown, and sidewalk was always available.
This may shock you, but not every place in the US is the same.
I think they could improve corner stores by having a mixed purpose. Maybe have a community center with a corner store attached to it. The community center is publicly operated and completely free. However the corner store is privately operated but with strict mandates and restrictions about marketing and what they can sell. Being located at a community center is kind of an indirect government subsidy so I don't think those rules will turn retailers off. You could perhaps take it even further by mandating they be local operated and not allowed to be part of a franchise. Maybe offer a direct subsidy if they are locally operated and take the subsidy away if a big stores tries to buy it.
I think the purpose of a local store should be not to turn a profit but to meet the needs of it's community. It's physical needs, mental needs and social needs. That one of the mental needs also should be reflected in restrictions on marketing. They should be forbidden from receiving donations from large corporations or push advertising. The only advertisement allowed is for the products at the store itself.
Not sure if you covered it as I’m still listening, but I also think that corner stores and easily accessible grocery shops in America would also cut down on the wait time in lines at places like grocery stores. Going to a grocery store anywhere from 5 to 6 at night or especially the first of the month is a total nightmare even at the smallest grocers. Everyone’s going at the same time, everyone’s stocking up on a million different household goods. Easily accessible stores means more frequent trips for smaller of amounts of goods > shorter lines OR long lines that move MUCH faster > easier levels of work stress for store employees > (ideally) more frequent or steady restocking of goods > less traffic jams and lines on basic streets that really can’t handle an insane amount of cars - I mean I could go on theorizing about the very possible benefits of adopting corner stores and walkable cities in America.
And for the few crazy people who don’t want those benefits… they can live in a few remaining remote suburbs and keep their cars. (And the way to deter that is to make them live even further than they are now, so the area will be a good desert lol)
I live in Delhi, India. The street my house is on has a store, grocery shop, clinic, restaurants, a bakery, hardware shop all at walking distance. taking the car to the store is something unimaginable here.
I'm from Madison & I f-ing love corner stores.
There's not many, but there's one near me, and the products are usually cheaper, they're less crowded (except right after work/school) faster to get to walking or driving, and overall there's just a comfy feeling about them.
Also, since they're so small, this means they may carry much less variety of products, however, they'll always sell the commonly sold good for that neighborhood, so if your culture of living matches your community, you'll usually be fine, as the store has everything you need except when you get into certain special hygiene or food products.
This is one of those videos where you just have to say: “oh America” and shake your head lightly.
How tho? Theirs plenty of cities here. Especially mine (NYC) with corners stores around every block. We call them Bodega's here.
@@bonda_racing3579 The point isn't that US don't have corner stores. It's more like US (and Canada maybe?) are possibly the only countries where corner stores isn't a thing in a lot of cities and zones.
@@bonda_racing3579 Yeah, but corner stores should be more prevalent and accessible by walking in other places in the country.
@@xyphere never denying that!
We have townhome apartments with a little market on one side of the block and a large park on the other side of the block. We're also considered a low income neighborhood, so for our low income family I couldn't imagine a better place to be for this part of our lives at least.
AHHH New Frontier! We're in Springfield, Oregon is pretty good about our corner stores 💕
People say we need to get rid of suburbs but what we really need to do isn’t eliminate suburbs but rather go back to the 1920 style streetcar suburbs instead of continuing the 1950 style suburbs
Update: I have no idea why stupid people replying to this comment think this is some argument having anything to do with race it doesn’t it’s about an urban planning style prevalent in the 1920s
Suburbs will always exist, the real question is one of walkability vs non walkability. and older suburbs are definitely more walkable
I’ve seen some suburbs built with waking and biking in mind. But they are very rare. 98% of new development in suburbs is terrible.
Also people like me resent them because they tend to extend how far one has to travel to return to nature from city center.
That would require people to live together with some they hate and want gone. Not going to happen.
@@night6724 Don’t want it, but reality sucks here. If everyone did right and got along, chances are we could have nice things like corner shops and such. But that is not the case. Segregation started sprawl but it can also stop it too.
@@night6724 I don't have any blacks in my area for some reason, and when I asked one of my black coworkers about it he told me that blacks were not fond of the chore of taking care of a yard. I asked him if that extended to things like pools and gardening and he commented that these things were perceived by blacks to be "white" and not part of black culture. Meanwhile, I see Asian and Latino and Middle Eastern neighbors always busy planting flowers and decorating and cleaning with white families doing the same. The segregation is chosen, and it is limited to blacks only. Sorry if this offends, but if black people in the US did not follow "black" culture and acted the same as everyone else, corner shops and all the great things like streetcars, light rail, etc would be everywhere.
The best part abt my neighborhood growing up was that in a 5 minute walk from my house there was an opening in a fence that led to 7-11, McDonald’s, pizza hut, and Taco Bell.
I can't believe so obvious things MUST be explained in US/Canada
It's nice to see you referencing two spots I used to live by, the Eugene New Frontiers and the SLO strip. I really do miss that small Grocery store in Eugene, really liked the walk and experience of it all! Thanks!
When I was on the zoning board years ago we heard an appeal from someone who wanted to open a corner store in a building that used to be ... a corner store. When it closed the site reverted to R1. The board had to go rogue and overturn the city staff determination. Apparently they thought a vacant building was preferable.
Moving from more southern va to northern va made me appreciate the convenience of corner stores, walkability etc
I think for corner stores to work in residential areas they need to be a) primarily grocery and similar businesses b) street-facing and c) have very little to no off-street parking and no gasoline sales. Basically they should be aimed at serving people in the neighborhood within walking distance and not people from outside the area, especially quick stop-and-go type visits. I think hours should be limited as well to prevent late-night out-of-neighborhood visits and the associated likelihood of crime from happening.
By the way despite Seattle having a large percentage of single-family residential land use it does have many, many small retail areas scattered throughout the city unlike a lot of other cities with similar zoning.
you can write those restrictions into the code for residential use. I don't understand the " prevent late-night out-of-neighborhood visits and the associated likelihood of crime from happening." part though
@@PlaystationMasterPS3 We have a 7/11 with lots of parking and gas about three unwalkable blocks away from my house. Late at night it is used as a meeting point for sketchy characters from outside the neighborhood which in turn keeps locals from patronizing the 7-11. My thoughts that are that by eliminating gas, parking and late-night operations you would create a safe spot for the neighborhood.
Had me till late night. I would work late and have a store nearby open late by my house made it so easy… so many work late like nurses, truckers etc The biggest thing that helps is lots of lighting
It can be tricky though if you limit your customer base too much. It's probably about the same price for a small store to be embedded in a neighborhood versus being out along a main road with more traffic but the number of potential customers is higher along the main road.
Neighbourhoods (or barangays) in the Philippines definitely has lots of them although they can be located anywhere not just in corners
How can the US still be considered an economic neoliberal country? Even France gives more freedom to businesses.
I think it has to do with U.S. culture. There are things that exceptions are made for in order to meet another cultural or national goal. Owning your own home (and in modern America, this means a detached single-family home, far from any commercial bustle or noise) and having space between you and your neighbors is seen almost as an American birthright. Some very pro-car advocates have admitted that, yes, U.S. suburban zoning and subsidizing automobile infrastructure *is* heavy-handed government intervention in the economy, but it serves the higher goal of making Americans into "independent" landowners (and thus less dependent on the state) and it also grows the economy (at least in their estimation), so this philosophical contradiction is considered justified. Somehow they’re saying that these un-liberal and redistributive state policies make Americans *more* independent of the state. It’s a bit weird, but very "U.S.".
We have corner-stores in South African neighborhoods and they create small town relationships between store owner n local families as u can go collect a missing item and pay them the next day based on the intimate customer base. Had the same in Birmingham England as well
I have at least 6 corner stores within walking distance in PDX but they're all just junk food shops. We need more farm stand like corner stores. The one we had for 38 years on Foster left during the pandemic 😢
I remember when corner stores disappeared when I was a kid it was after a number of 7-11's and a couple of Maverick Markets opened in our town
I mentioned to my baby boomer dad how nice it would be to have corner stores. He balked at the idea. I think he's picturing the big busy loud store instead of the quiet small convenient shop that it would be.
In europe even the smallest and poorest villages have essential stores(ABCs in hungary) in the center if it near the curch or pub and you can walk there within 15 minutes at most.
I was cooking today, and realised half way through that I was lacking an ingredient. I put my shoes on, ran around the corner to the shop, found and bought what I was missing, and got back within three minutes. Corner shops are great.
Repeat after me: lobbying is the root of most problems in America, including the whole car culture
lobbying =money
so money is the root of most problems in America.
therefore we most get rid of money.
i'm joking
One of the best things about my LA apartment is the small neighborhood grocery on the corner of my block. It’s so convenient that it has changed how I shop - instead of stocking up on everything, it’s so nice to be able to pop down and grab some milk, pasta, or coffee whenever I need it, chat with the clerk who knows me, and get back five minutes later. Despite being small, they carry almost everything I buy regularly and rarely do I wait in line. But for my parents in their R1 neighborhood, going to the grocery store is an hour+ ordeal. Getting in the car, driving ten minutes, navigating the huge parking lot, and dealing with long checkout lines and those horrible self-checkout machines. But for them, that car-friendly store, huge parking lot, and being able to buy loads of groceries at once represents convenience.
It is hilarious for me as an Indian because here you can't walk for more than 5 minutes without encountering any sort of small business. 90% of the things that I require in daily are just a 10 minute walk from my place and even the metro and public transport is a 2 minute walk. I also have to admit that I live in a very convenient place. Many people in remote areas either have to cycle or drive to get their things done
But even there they CAN cycle to get their things. In much of North America, walking and cycling are dangerous, impossible or even illegal. There's a reason why the USA doesn't get any immigrants from developed countries anymore.
@@ixlnxs Walking and cycling in America is dangerous?? Compared to European countries, maybe yes. But here in India I dodge death everyday lol. Buses and trucks pass a couple of centimetres beside me all the time
i was always confused why america would have these huge walmarts and box stores. Here in europe they would be nowhere to be seen. Basically only small shops and occasionally a medium sized supermarket, but often several types of stores in it. But it seems obvious when you see the american zoning laws. Removing them would also reduce the monopolies of the big stores, which really is a problem in north america
I think the nearest counterpart in Europe would be Carrefour
The city of Arcata, California has banned all chain stores since at least the 1990s. The US has a few bright spots.
In the Philippinnes, we have sari sari stores. They are small stores in residential areas that sells from snacks, cooking ingredients, cooked meals and even school materials and they are operated either infront of a house units or even a kiosk provided by a HOA. Those stores would buy from groceries or delivered by a supplier which is useful for anyone that don't need to go ouut of a village or drive to a mall as these stores are only a few blocks away.
I live in Minneapolis and am happy we got some mentions in this video, but we still have a long way to go. I live in an old, established neighborhood, but the nearest corner store and small supermarket are just *barely* a walkable distance, especially in winter. New development downtown is pretty impressive though. I lived in an apartment downtown 20 years ago and aside from a really crappy convenience store in my building, you had to leave downtown to buy groceries. Now there are about 10 times as many rental units downtown, plus two real grocery stores (a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's) and tons of new restaurants and just about a Starbucks on every block. *But* rents downtown are insane, so even with all of the new mixed use developments downtown and throughout the city, I'm still not sure how much more affordable it is to live here. In other words, still a long way to go. But it's all part of the "Minneapolis 2040" plan so I guess that's the time frame to consider.
Minneapolis recently got rid of parking minimums citywide. The rest will be based on how permissible its zoning code is. More you build, the more rent drops. Less you build the more it increases. Supply and demand.
I live in Minneapolis, too. I'm close enough to Lake Street that I have access to something like a corner store. What is sad that if you walk around these early 20th century neighborhoods, you can still see some of the old corner stores that have been converted into strange little houses.
@@littlestevie2919 Yes! We have several of those in my immediate vicinity.
But the change is gradually taking place in Minnesota. Eliminating single family residential housing zones which dominated Minneapolis was a big step in the right direction.
In my European country we often have main streets or squares spaced at walking/bicycle distance where a supermarket and other daily stores and services form a little integrated commercial ecosystem.
It is very convenient to walk past a few shops and get the groceries, the pharmacy pickup and some fresh bread or a coffee without having to deal with traffic situations.
in my boyfriends town in long island there is the beautiful red barn-themed drive thru convenience stores that really uhhh fit the area
I think you miss a other benefit. If you have a shop or even a shop and let say a barbershop directly with in a walkable/cycle area you create a community hub. people will be drawn to go there even just to have a chat with there friends, family or even (semi) acquaintance.
It creates a place to be social with in your area.
I actually think you should capitalize on that and make a mixed building. I think it would be ideal as kind of 2 buildings pushed together. A community center that is operated by the local government and a privately owned corner store attached. However while the store is owned privately the building is entirely owned by the government and they put restrictions on the store.
Like they have a list of unhealthy products not allowed to be sold, have a mandate of healthy products that need to be sold and they also have severe restrictions on marketing and sponsorship. The only posters, billboards and so on that are allowed are for products that are sold at the store and they are not allowed to be too loud or obnoxious. I also think the ownership of the store should be forced to be local. Only a local is allowed to operate it and if none is forthcoming it will be government operated and also once that owner has the store they are not allowed to own any other store.
I think having semi-government run establishments like this helps the functioning of capitalism. The corner store will have severe restrictions on it and have to pay rent to the government but will of course greatly benefit from the community center. That creates a cozy alternative to the sterile shopping mall and force them to step up their game.
@@MrMarinus18 what you are discribing is a form of plent economy. With a lot of challenges.
@@sirBrouwer I have never heard of that term but maybe it is what I'm describing.
I know such a thing would come with a lot of challenges but I think they are challenges worth solving.
I think you should have local small stores alongside commercial enterprises. I feel capitalism has taken us about as far as it can and it's time to roll it back somewhat.
In the past the government protecting sectors of the economy like this was a bad thing as it stagnated innovation but maybe that could have reached it's limit this time. Productivity has reached all time highs yet happiness has gone down.
I feel we have pushed neo-liberalism too far just like how the communist pushed socialism too far. The ideal solution lies somewhere inbetween but of course is the hardest to execute.
Not having a small convenience and grocery store 5 minutes on foot is insane. I am from Europe so this is absolutely standard. Even in single family house areas.
Not being able to walk to get a pint of milk is insane to me.
Being from (and currently living in again) the northeast has been a blessing in some ways - namely, old towns and cities that don't have such strict R1 zoning. Where I live now, a relatively small borough in Central PA, I'm on a block where I can hit up the 7-11 and even the corner bar easily by foot. This was not as much the case when I lived in larger towns in the south, where my pedestrian inclinations made getting around inconvenient and even dangerous.
Corner stores don't need to be planned by governments; they just need not to be outlawed. And if only one store is allowed in a neighborhood, you know it's going to be more expensive than in a free market. Think of a shop located inside the lobby of a hotel.
but having 1 mega store pr 4 miles makes things cheaper?
if the local store is to expensive, you go to the other local store 10-20 minutes away
and most people like to have neighbors that don't despises them
Free market is what got us into this mess
One of my favorite things from when I visited Europe was the numerous local markets, like the SPAR stores in Salzburg. The ones I went to were a bit bigger than what you're describing for corner stores, a 1 story building taking up the land for 3-6 small houses. I could see people reasonably walking to the store and doing all their shopping there. They also had a bakery and deli in it as well.
In the UK we absolutely worship our corner shops. Gives a neighbourhood real character as you become friends with the shop workers etc
I live in the UK in a small town doing deliveries and having corner stores really helps as it gives me chance to get some food while on shift. I do wish the us had more of them. There are so many benefits. Great video as always
Mexico: I'm 4 paralell universes ahead of you
Most places in the world in fact. Corner markets are a common fixture here in China too.
Malaysia even in super rich neighbourhoods and super remote rural communities, so it not even a question of density.
After moving from Queens, New York to Austin, Texas, I now live in a complex that is about a 20 minute walk from an HEB. I'm told this is "good for Texas", but in my old neighborhood I lived within a 5 minute walk of 2 great corner stores - one was more upscale, run by a Turkish family and sold specialty goods from the Middle East and Eastern Europe as well as lots of fresh produce, while the other was a bodega, open 24 hours, where I mostly bought milk, beer, snack foods, and household goods like toilet paper and dish soap. I shopped at each at least twice a week and most of my visits were for a single item, on the way home from the train, bus, or nearby parking lot. Now I have to be very conscientious of what I need when I go to HEB once every ten or so days, because every shopping trip is an hour+ affair
This 1000%. Having lived a good deal of time in Central & South America, this is one aspect I REALLY miss living in North America.
The corner store near my best friend's house is one of the places where we go the most when I'm in their part of town. It's become a staple of my social life, its food a staple of their diet, and my friend group has made so many great memories there. I wholeheartedly agree with the points that you made and wish that building them in more types of zones were legal, too.
The planners are finally starting to realize thier horrible thing known as zoning. Zoning makes cities less sustainable, less healthy, and kills local business. It’s even counterproductive to the outdated 1950’s goals, it made neighbourhoods less peaceful, (when you have to drive), people more depressed, and quality of life lower. Even commercially uses are mixed. Doesn’t matter if you need a quick snack or buying up industrial machinery, it’s the same horrible suburbia with it’s massive unsafe parking lots and wide stroads. They could fire every planner and remove every zoning law and we would have sustainable, peaceful walkable, areas with cheaper housing.
In Mexico there are convenience stores called OXXO almost every 300m, even in suburbs.
5:05 didn’t realise the US was so car dependant that someone needs to show these people how to walk properly!
Haha yes I had the same reaction 🤣
As a guy from not the greatest country to live in, I can't believe how dumb zoning laws are in the supposed best nation in the world. I discussed with many Americans on a certain anonymous message board on this subject, and it's baffling for me that they defend this! One dude was literally disgusted by the sole thought of having grocery store within a suburb - I'm not making this up. Let's take a look at my hometown of Siedlce, Poland. The city grew rapidly from mid-1970s onwards and expanded in various directions, most of the developments were the so-called "commie blocks", but south of the railway station there was a strong single family home development going on, and this is the area I live in. There are three grocery stores within walking distance, a school and kindergarten also within walking or biking distance too. And aside from these, there are other businesses just next door like car repair shops, barbers, gas stations - you name them, as well as fire department (firemen are literally my neighbors) or a children's playground. And while the urban public transport is quite poor (so poor that I'd rather ride a bike), the neighborhood has easy access to railway as mentioned earlier.
And come to think about it that this can't be done in the most powerful, rich and best country on the planet.
I’m jealous. I’m physically disabled and live in a neighborhood where you NEED to have a car to get anywhere
The more I learn about the standards of living in the US the stronger my happier I become knowing I'll never have to live there.
I have 5 fairly big grocery stores and 4 small ones in walking distance from my apartment. None of them takes more than 5-10 minutes to reach.
Suburban cities vs urban cities. I live in the US and have two grocery stores, a pharmacy, train station, shops, and restaurants within a few minute's walk from me.
New suburban development is wasteland of car oriented hellscapes though and we need to fix it.
@@Strideo1 Well even cities in the US mostly have single family housing as shown in the beginning of the video. There are exceptions though, for sure
Lucky bastard.
@@je6a478 It varies from neighborhood to neighborhood too. I live in Seattle which was highlighted in the video and it's definitely got waaayyyy too much single family zoning but I chose to live in a neighborhood/street a bit closer to some of the shops so I'm able to get access to 3-4 grocery stores and a variety of other businesses within 5-10min walk even despite the horrible zoning. Some neighborhoods are better than others and the line is probably correlated to the age of the neighborhood which affects zoning and construction over the decades.
@Damn Zodiak
I don't think grocery stores and walking distances are metrics used to tabulate standards of living.
my town tried to pass an accessory home bill a couple of years ago but the population absolutely panicked, so it never passed.
As a Latin American I find the absence of corner stores in NA cities disturbing. I mean, I have grown up in a neighbourhood that has plenty of corner stores hosting: restaurants, bakeries, drug stores, hair salons, Cyber cafes ,etc all within walking distance, some are even a block away from my home ( a block is aprox 150 mts 500 ft here in Lima).
I have fond memories to the corner store that was near the grade school that I went to. I was so sad when it closed. The closet to a corner store in my area is a CVS that is a 5 min walk, so I use that as my corner store.
As an European, I never understood this single type zonings.
You want diversity, homes, offices and stores belong together.
Then again it's hard to imagine a city built around cars instead of pedestrians.
Glad this is changing, good job,US!
I think that's the issue. The folks who want this type of zoning do not want ANY diversity. They consider it a danger to their way of life. For them, homogeneity is safer.
as an American i can say that 3 generations have now grown up with this suburb residential only mindset its incredibly difficult to change it, especially when many people see anything other then a car as dangerous, either bc of other cars or crime (which is sometimes a valid concern).
If it is changing, it is only changing slowly. Most Americans don't want that sort of community diversity and community collectiveness, or at least they don't actively pursue it. In most American cities there's been several generations that have mostly lived in single family residential exclusive zones and who commute to work mostly be car and also using cars for their shopping trips for sundry goods and green groceries to locations at times half an hour's drive from where they live. To them, it is just the norm. It will take a long time for that sort of outlook to change.
@@sharpestcookieinthetoolbox9742 Statistically, homogeneity is safer. Diversity in of itself is not a strength, it can bring all kinds of conflicts and strife no one wants or benefits from.
😎As a European/Eurabian, I notice how all the Americans misunderstood what you meant by diversity. 🤩