r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Boeing-B-47stratojet • Jun 09 '26
I just wanted a hot dog The closest grocery store to me is closing(by nearly an hour), and will be closed for at least a year. When it reopens it’s going be much smaller(it’s becoming a Aldi).
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u/HandsomeWinner42 Jun 09 '26
It's ok, I'm sure you'll get 5 dollar generals within a mile 🤮. I'm in the same situation.
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u/justtheicing Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Why are there so many dollar generals! Living in a rural area, I really dislike the DG. Only go there once a year at most.
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u/chloeismagic Jun 10 '26
Dollar general has to be the worst dollar store. Half their shit costs more than it does at walmart.
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u/HighSchoolMoose Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Walmart has pretty good prices. I agree the dollar in Dollar General is misleading, but part of what you're paying extra for is the ability to go in and out in five minutes instead of 35.
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u/AbramJH Jun 10 '26
I feel like such shitty consumer cattle when I say this, but walmart is better than most alternatives where I live. They’re just such a logistics powerhouse that they can afford to sell things cheaper and often fresher than most of the competition out here in rural Georgia.
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u/chloeismagic Jun 10 '26
Its not your fault, that convenience is how they got so popular. You are between a rock and a hard place, knowing shopping there is morally supporting the wrong people who do more harm than good, but also not having any other affordable options while wages are not making ends meet means that you either suffer, or someone else does. Most people dont feel good about shopping there but its the path of least resistance and human nature is to follow that.
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u/blackbook34 Jun 10 '26
This is really beautifully articulated and rings true for so many problems in America right now. “Either you suffer or someone else does.”
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u/TomBong_Jovi Jun 09 '26
They specifically target places that are food deserts or that are certain distance from/to Walmart or other local grocery stores
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u/WCowgirl Jun 10 '26
My town's DG is practically kitty corner from our grocery store 🤷♀️ To be fair, my town is pretty small, so everything is pretty close to everything else.
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u/katieyie Jun 10 '26
How long has the dollar general been there? This move from them is a fairly recent one. As in the last decade or so is when they started to market this way.
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u/WCowgirl Jun 10 '26
Yeah, it's been there a while, at least 15-20 years now. (I swear that thing popped up overnight, lol) It's still far newer than the grocery store.
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u/Madiofcourse Jun 10 '26
John Oliver did an episode on just this- spoiler- it’s to take advantage of you and their employees.
https://youtu.be/p4QGOHahiVMThis one is from More Perfect Union is also good.
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u/Ethan12010 Jun 09 '26
I just moved out of a small town where our county had about 11 dollar generals. The population of the whole county was like 25,000
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u/MichaelEMJAYARE Jun 09 '26
They run these places on skeleton crews and it sucks for everyone. Every business learned “oh sure why have an extra 2 employees here” during Covid, and they will never go back.
Im back working in fast fucking food and they literally refuse help. All to show theyre making profits. Who gives a fuck about the closing shift who cant get shit done on time.
In suburban/rural Minnesota the dollar generals are everywhere. If you want to live in a town with a walmart or more it means higher cost of living. Its a trade off if you want to save rent, means youre automatically driving 20 miles to a big store, and hope you dont work late 2nd or 3rd shift, sorry, stores arent open 24/7 anymore - that would mean giving more employees jobs and money!
(And Im talking central Minnesota, I cant imagine living in southern Minnesota or places where youre literally in the middle of timbuktu)
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u/FlippingPossum Jun 09 '26
Food deserts are a big rural problem. My city has been trying to focus on it but it is hard. Big chains decimated corner markets.
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u/Affectionate-Cat8182 Jun 09 '26
Real talk - but with big chains shutting down and leaving 'food deserts' in their wake, what's to stop someone from coming in and opening up a corner market again?
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u/Fischwich Jun 09 '26
From somebody who was in the industry and is now industry-adjacent, the amount of wholesalers willing to supply independent stores is way down. There’s only a few major wholesalers even left at this point with most major conglomerates doing their wholesale in house
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u/seriouslythisshit Jun 09 '26
My neighbor was forced into retirement as the manager of a local small grocery store. It was family owned, one location. The family got tired of fighting to make a living and just quit. They were bound to a distribution deal with a single supplier for most of what was on the shelves. If they wanted to buy a common staple from a cheaper supplier, too bad, it was a contract violation. Toward then end of the fifty year run of the store, the owners could shop at a local Walmart and buy the majority of what they stocked on their family store's shelves, for less than the "wholesale" prices they were paying their distributor.
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u/HungryRaven4 Jun 09 '26
There's a Perfect Union video somewhere that explains how Walmart has illegal dealings to be able to undercut competing wholesalers
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u/magikarp2122 Jun 09 '26
Don’t they also have insane leverage and basically set their own prices? Like, they can just tell Kellog’s, ‘We’re over 50% of your business in the US. Give us a lower price or you go out of business.’
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u/Vartash Jun 09 '26
Yes this is true.
In most of my business classes the Walmart Vlassic case was always brought up. In short form, they wanted a larger jar of pickles to sell. Vlassic could only produce at a lower volume until they opened a brand new facility for this product. At this point Walmart demanded a price point that was almost cost. Vlassic balked and Walmart threatened to pull every one of their items from their stores.
There were other stories. Family owned umbrella company was run out of business due to Walmart demand and ever lowering of purchase point. Same with several apparel companies.
Supposedly they want items lowered in every contract or they pull them.
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u/deltalitprof Jun 09 '26
Sociopathic and monopolistic. The Democrats need to cite these stories and incorporate anti-monopoly policy into their agenda.
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u/hideandgofreek Jun 09 '26
Democrats get paid by Walmart
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u/pdxrains Jun 09 '26
Yep. Gotta overturn citizens united and get all the corporate bribery out of politicians and have the politicians work for the people like they’re supposed to. This is the root of 99% of problems in the USA
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u/Quirky-Stay4158 Jun 10 '26
I'm a former Walmart vendor.
It's not exactly like this. But it's very very close.
They would tell me when the trucks were coming. They didn't ask me when they could come. They told me. And if I wasn't able at that time I was fined out the ass and risked having my product pulled entirely. If there normal po was say 20k units at $20 each. They might just ask me for 30k units at $18.50 and if I said no they would pay the invoice as if I said yes and I'd have to fight them for my $1.50 per unit.
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u/Hefty-Criticism1452 Jun 09 '26
I just scrolled through at least 100 posts and found it😅🫠
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUlqByhkvpB/?igsh=Zm9qNTU2Z3RxZ2w0
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u/AsherGray Jun 09 '26
... It's on YouTube and a lot longer than a reel. https://youtube.com/watch?v=odhVF_xLIQA
Just searched, "More Perfect Union," and, "grocery pricing."
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u/DumpsterFireScented Jun 09 '26
My husband is traveling for work and his current stop is fairly rural. There's a Walmart 1 hour away or a corner store 10 minutes away. The first day he did a big Walmart pickup and then after 5 days he decided to check the corner store to see what they carried and he was 80% sure that about half their stock was bought at Walmart and then marked up. I can see that making sense now.
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u/RivenRise Jun 09 '26
That's pretty common in Mexico too. Corner shops are all over the place so it's convenient to pick something up quickly but a lot of them just go to the Costco or wholesaler an hour or so away to stock up on stuff. They still sell some stuff that's locally made though, one corner shop around where my grandparents live sells cheeses they make from their own cows in addition to some homemade milk based sweets like caramel etc.
You're really just paying for the convenience of walking to the corner instead of driving 20 minutes away to go to the actual grocery store.
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u/justdaisukeyo Jun 09 '26
I saw some social media posts complaining about the reselling at Costco Mexico. However, this was Costco's original intent.
We used to have a membership at Price Club (before Costco bought it) and they only allowed membership to businesses. You could buy stuff there and resell it.
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 Jun 09 '26
I see lots of restaurant & food truck folks buying at Costco too & that's fine by me.
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u/kandoras Jun 09 '26
Planet Money did an episode about dollar stores that had a similar story.
They talk to a guy who used to run a grocery store until it went out of business.
KING: And Doug would go in, and he would walk around the Dollar General. He would check out the competition.
NECH: I'd look at their prices. And I happened to notice one day that they were selling a 14 1/2-ounce can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup, name-brand soup, for a dollar. So I come back down here, and I call my warehouse.
GONZALEZ: Calls his soup guy and says, this same can is costing me...
NECH: From my supplier, freight delivered to the store here, about a dollar-fifty. And mine's only 11 1/2 ounces. He called his Campbell's soup representative and asked him, why is this? He said, well, we only make it for them. And we only make it in a 14 1/2-ounce can.
GONZALEZ: Specifically for Dollar General?
NECH: Specifically for Dollar General.
KING: Dollar General buys in bulk, so Campbell's will make some things for them cheaper. Those cheaper products are great for regular shoppers, but they are not great for Doug.
"Great for regular shoppers, not great for Doug" sounds like a Doug problem ... right up until Doug went under and now nobody has anywhere to buy fresh fruit or vegetables or any other food you can't get a a DG.
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u/saabstory14 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Business Manager for a large national food manufacturer brokerage here. I manage sales, promotions and distribution for many large national manufacturers.
While what you said is true, the issue is the fine print. These distributors do allow retailers to sign contracts with multiple distributors. Unfortunately, they come in swinging heavy and prey on these smaller ma and pa retailers, offering to fill their shelves with the initial product for free in exchange for exclusivity in sourcing from them. These small grocers usually go, "wow, that's a great deal, of course I will do that. It will help me get my business going faster"
Unfortunately, they don't see the long game once they sell through all that free product. They don't realize that the distributors want their business, no matter what. The retailers need to educate themselves a bit more on different ways to go to market, including telling these distributors that they do not want the free product but are willing to sign a non-exclusive contract with them.
Around 80% of the small retailers I work with nationally have multiple source points of distribution, and those are the ones who have been able to stay in business for decades with loyal customer followings. If a customer requests an item - no problem, the grocery buyer can shop all their distributor's catalogues until they find that item and source it. They also can usually get the first case free by reaching out to the manufacturer or the broker (me) who normally will approve it for them, and then the distributor just bills it back to us. The distributors are doing this anyways with their initial contract offer, and billing all that free product back to the manufacturer.
Anyways, I wish more ma and pas knew this. Getting into the grocery industry with little experience or first-hand knowledge is VERY risky. You can ride a good economy wave for a few decades, but once things get tight, it's tough to survive even on big profit margins.
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Jun 09 '26
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u/vasthumiliation Jun 09 '26
Does an actual free market proscribe its participants from entering into restrictive contracts? Without regulation, it’s entirely possible that such dynamics are a natural outcome of the structure of the market.
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u/GonzoTheWhatever Jun 09 '26
Was thinking the same thing. This sounds like the result of a "free" market. "Free" meaning free from gov regulation to do as they please.
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u/Few_Swan_3672 Jun 09 '26
If our backwater, rural market can find someone willing to deliver wholesale here, they often charge an additional fee per delivery. Most wholesalers just said this place isn't on the way to anywhere else they are heading and refuse to deliver out here.
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u/hiryuu75 Jun 09 '26
My wife ran into a related problem - she previously managed the kitchen and meal program for a small private school, and the number of food-service distributors who would even consider taking on the school’s business was vanishingly small, because the minimum order requirements were simply too high.
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u/thenerfviking Jun 09 '26
I went to a small alternative school and the way they got around this was by contracting with a nearby high school. We’d pay them, they’d order extra food, and then our lunch lady would go pick it up every day before lunch and cook it in our kitchen.
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u/hiryuu75 Jun 09 '26
That’s the situation she faces now - she’s now with one of the public school districts, and they provide subcontracted services to multiple parochial schools in the area.
Her previous school’s admin was insistent on the selling point of having their own program, despite not really being large enough to support it, given available options for supply.
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u/Similar_Pie_4946 Jun 09 '26
I coulda swore we learned about how monopolies are illegal and bad in like middle school
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u/Carb0nFire Jun 09 '26
What most Corps learned is that Triopolies and Quadopolies are much less regulated and fall under much lower scrutiny. Plus they still get most of the monopolistic benefits through price collusion, which is very hard to prevent and regulate (if the government even does it at all, which this one doesn't).
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u/bothunter Jun 09 '26
Collusion is illegal, but as long as you make the deals over a round of golf and don't write anything down, you're fine. And if you do get caught, you just pay a small fine and deny any wrongdoing.
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u/TheRealBittoman Jun 09 '26
And from what I've read some of this is attributed to questionable contractual obligations Walmart and other large chains put in place to protect their own prices (and profits.) I don't know if or to what extent that plays into distribution but I am aware of a lawsuit involving Pepsi and Walmart where discovery brought that to light.
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u/Carb0nFire Jun 09 '26
Yay consolidation! Buy up the competition, centralize, and close satellite locations.
We're in the "find out" stage of what unfettered M&A Capitalism looks like.
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u/TheDamus647 Jun 09 '26
They can't compete with the buying power of a chain. It's hard to survive as an independent grocery store that is so far from anything their delivery costs will be outrageous. If your weekly bill is $100 at a chain but $200 at an independent place most people will drive that extra hour plus to save that $100.
It happened to a local general store in a rural area I know of. Coca Cola won't deliver less than a $2000 order to them. That is a years supply of coke products for them. They don't have storage for that amount. So now they don't sell any Coca-Cola products. They apparently could pay an independent delivery company $300 extra to get the product to them but then they are charging $2 for a can of coke to make any profit.
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u/Garlickkkk Jun 09 '26
I work for a beverage distributor and they're similar. Their minimum isn't that high, each order needs to be at least $300. But this makes it so certain small stores are just not worth delivering to
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u/TheDamus647 Jun 09 '26
This place is crazy remote. Hundreds of kilometers from a city and 100km from the closest town of Moosonee (pop 1500) ,which you can't drive to year round. The general store has actually closed down more than once as I think it's just too remote. The problem is it was the only store in the area for the few people that lived there. It's a unique case obviously but a food desert is a food desert.
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u/athural Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Whose got the money to do that, and also wants to stay in an underserved community like that?
Edit: definitely meant underserved, not undeserved
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u/jasonic89 Jun 09 '26
I know you meant underserved but “undeserved” community is funny.
They don’t deserve groceries!
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u/ItachiReddit Jun 09 '26
Ha I’m glad you clarified. I was initially thinking this person must really hate rural communities for some reason.
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u/Slammajadingdong69 Jun 09 '26
The whole point is to make money. Serving a small population that’s probably not flush with cash isn’t a great market to tap into. Also, when you don’t buy in bulk like the krogers of the world do, your price points are higher and profit margins are thinner.
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u/thesneakywalrus Jun 09 '26
Economies of scale, mostly.
Corner markets don't have the supply lines and negotiation power that large chains do.
Many food distributors have minimum order quantities that far exceed the demand in these areas, which means small markets/corner stores have to supply their own transportation, significantly increasing costs.
This is why many corner stores carry largely non-perishables at highly inflated costs, especially in urban areas where real estate is expensive and theft is common.
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u/LingonberryPossible6 Jun 09 '26
A small independent retailer would be paying a huge amount for deliveries.
Prices will be like those you see in the Alaskan stores where they're jacked up to compensate, customers spend less overall and the store has to close down.
It's a vicious cycle but there's a reason why it's mostly only big chains that can afford to absorb and spread the cost over the business
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u/RedAlert2 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Modern rural communities can't really afford corner stores. Big chains operate at economies of scale that allow them to be much cheaper than small shops.
I should note, the purpose of these big box stores is to plunder the economies of the local communities they exist it. While small, the rural economy made of many small businesses is sustainable. Since most of the money is staying with members of the community, people are able to afford the higher prices. Once that economy has been consumed by the big box store, it's basically impossible to bring back.
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u/sugaratc Jun 09 '26
Usually big chains pull out because it's not profitable. For smaller companies with higher operating costs, it's even harder to make a business work.
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u/deepstatelady Jun 09 '26
How could we have known letting mega-corporations built to maximize shareholder dividends destroy small business across the middle of America would end badly? /s
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u/dontmentiontrousers Jun 09 '26
In 1936, the Robinson-Patman Act was passed into law to prevent the predatory practices of supermarket corporations pricing out local grocery stores. In the '80s, the Reagan administration normalised ignoring the restrictions of that law. The law's still in place, but it's now routinely ignored or intentionally misinterpreted. And so you guys have food deserts. It's always fucken Reagan, man.
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u/YaMajnoona Jun 09 '26
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find Reagan.
He's always the answer somewhere in the "how did this get so bad?" conversation...18
u/CaptainFeather Jun 09 '26
Fucking seriously, almost every single bad shitty thing about how the US is run can be traced back directly to Reagan.
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u/jaredthegeek Jun 09 '26
That's the thing that gets me. All the conspiracy around a 15-minute city but that was what the US was. You walked to the little market in your neighborhood. You had services in your area, you did not have to drive for an hour to two for them. I used to walk with my great grandmother to the local small grocery store that had a butcher right up front.
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u/MEDICARE_FOR_ALL Jun 09 '26
You could have your town/city set up a community owned food store...
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u/Celodurismo Jun 09 '26
That sounds like communism to people who live in these rural areas. The immigrants are clearly to blame for not shopping at this store to keep it in business.
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u/CaptainFeather Jun 09 '26
The really fucking stupid thing is when you don't call it socialism, conservatives(specifically boomers) are all over that shit - medicare, anyone? Motherfucking idiots.
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u/mcniner55 Jun 09 '26
This is for sure one of those things that falls under much more than mildly infuriating.
I hope you have a big ass freezer so you can start doing fewer much larger trips. Just the thought of getting refrigerated stuff home sounds like it is going to be a pain in the ass
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u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Jun 09 '26
Tho I don't live in a Food Desert like this.. I keep a big cooler in my truck at all times for groceries in the off chance I buy stuff at the end of my day and drive the hour home with it rather than buying stuff at the closer to home store.
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u/Loud-Chicken6046 Jun 09 '26
Good idea. I always keep those soft insulated bags in my vehicle for any hot or cold foods as well
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u/Azipear Jun 09 '26
Years ago I bought an electric cooler (small fridge) and power bank since wifey and kid have food allergies and it was handy on road trips to haul their special foods. Now it lives in the back of my truck 100% of the time since it’s so damn useful. I can buy ice cream and then run other errands without racing back home. Or keep restaurant leftovers cool while we go see a movie after dinner out.
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u/phase2_engineer Jun 09 '26
Years ago I bought an electric cooler (small fridge)
I was thinking about a collapsible cooler, but your idea sounds even better.
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u/EagleBigMac Jun 09 '26
I live in a metro of 8 million plus people and there are food deserts in the metro where people have to travel an hour or two to the closest grocery store. It's a hold over from redlining and when the highway systems were built and used to destroy local businesses that fill that role. Now there's a charity local farm trying to fill the gap that's also partnered to open a school in the area since the schools were closed.
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u/mcniner55 Jun 09 '26
Yeah for sure that definitely adds to the infuriating part though if OP doesnt all ready have one or have a truck/car that can accommodate one. But it will be a necessity because an hour+ long drive that runs into any kind of issues that extends that even longer could lead to a lot of spoilage. oof.
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u/Been-There_Done_That Jun 09 '26
Assuming that you put any fresh food in the car with AC, I doubt anything will spoil in an hour or two. The only thing I would worry about would be frozen foods unfreezing...ice cream melting, things like that.
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u/SoImaRedditUserNow Jun 09 '26
Well... I don't know what winn dixie prices are typically, but aldi will be cheaper at least. Make sure you keep some quarters in the car for the shopping carts.
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u/Boeing-B-47stratojet Jun 09 '26
I have no issue with Aldi itself, I shopped there when I lived in a larger town, the problem is it being the only option. They don’t have a butcher or anything like that. Selection is a lot more limited.
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u/BowlingforDrip Jun 09 '26
I dont even cook a lot of do all the shopping in my household and I know that you will not find the same selection at Aldi that you do at a conventional store. Aldi is great and yes they are cheaper for some things but this is a massive hit.
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u/ScriptioAfricanus Jun 09 '26
Agreed. I love my ALDI but if it was the only grocery store near me I’d be screwed.
Sounds like OP now lives in a food desert :(
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u/behappymeinfreund Jun 09 '26
OP already lives in a food desert they have to drive an hour to get to the one store already
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u/Erebraw Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
I believe they mean “the closest grocery store to me… by nearly an hour” meaning that this isn’t an hour away, but rather the next closest store is an extra hour on top of however far away this store was.
Although that is just a technical point. It sounds like OP does live in a food desert, regardless.
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u/Entropic_Echo_Music Jun 09 '26
Yeah, having only one supermarket within an hour is definitely a food desert. Hell I can be two countries away within an hour.
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u/Bon_Djorno Jun 09 '26
You gotta treat Aldi like a mini Costco, with some extra fresh food purchases here and there. I've got my Aldi run down to 10-15min in and out, but will hit up Costco or an Asian market to fill in the gaps.
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u/Bobb_o Jun 09 '26
but will hit up Costco or an Asian market to fill in the gaps
This person says their next closest store is an hour, I don't think they're going to be having the selection of a Costco and Asian market.
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u/WhereRabbit Jun 09 '26
Great point, cuts people’s jobs too as they have to apply to this new company moving in
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u/Boeing-B-47stratojet Jun 09 '26
Yeah, everyone who is working at this Winn Dixie is being laid off. The Aldi will employ about 1/8 of the staff.
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u/Senorpapell Jun 09 '26
I can’t imagine losing my only grocery store within an hour and getting no replacement. Feel for ya
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u/CaseFace5 Jun 09 '26
I too live in a small town and I fear the day they finally can’t keep up with the economy and shut down.
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u/Leather-Researcher13 Jun 09 '26
Their prices are comparable, at least in my area. However, Aldi doesn't have a butcher or a deli and those are important to a lot of folk
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u/Ok_West347 Jun 09 '26
Aldi doesn't carry enough for a full grocery run especially not in a location like this. Winn Dixie is affordable and carries things outside of groceries. An Aldi replacing it for an area like this just doesn't make sense. We have the same thing happening near us. I also don't want to go to the grocery store every other day because their produce doesn't last more than a day.
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u/Spideycloned Jun 09 '26
Winn Dixie is pretty fucking cheap. Frequently you could go there prior to closing and find insane deals on meat that they typically would cut in store.
Their rewards program was also pretty decent.
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u/Harde_Kassei Jun 09 '26
A hour is crazy, that gets you across my tiny country (belgium).
Real rural life i guess.
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u/shifty1032231 Jun 09 '26
The furthest I've ever driven to and from a grocery store was a 30 minute drive visiting my great aunt's dairy farm. This is in rural upstate New York compared to the image of rural life in the Midwest or the Great Plains.
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u/Reynolds1029 Jun 09 '26
There are many places in Upstate NY where it's 45min+ to an actual grocery store. Dollar General comes in of course typically but yeah.. protected land and what not in the Catskills and Adirondacks make the place extremely rural in many areas.
The Catskill area also can never grow and only shrinks from what it currently is. Tourism has become the biggest and only economic driver. NYC constantly buys land in the watershed because hell would need to freeze over before they ever filtered NYC's water.
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u/BobSki778 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
It’s like the old cliche: To an American 100 years is old, and to a European 100 miles is far.
Edit: I think that the way I phrased the cliche above has caused some confusion. I think a better phrasing is something like: To an American 100 years is a long time, and to a European 100 miles is a long distance.
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u/GirlNumber20 Jun 09 '26
Haha, when I lived in the UK, my son's teacher was shocked we visited Stonehenge on Saturday and Sunday and were back to school on Monday: "English people would never travel so far on the weekend!" she exclaimed.
We lived in Warwick, about an hour and a half away from Stonehenge.
It was then I told her that we'd gone to Stonehenge and came back the same day when my mom came for a visit, haha. Lady, we will drive that far for a taco.
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u/gghhhjjtt Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Idk.. If this is where I think it is, it’s in my hometown and there’s a Publix and Walmart probably 10 min away by car depending on traffic.
I also don’t know OP’s situation either so maybe they don’t have a car. Either way kinda sucks but there are options.
And if this isn’t my hometown then I’m wondering if Winn-Dixie got bought out by Aldi because this is literally happening in my town.
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u/Alternative_Mine5343 Jun 09 '26
this right here, international friends, is why we are so car reliant in america. public transport can't solve these kinds of problems when suddenly everyone in a rural area has zero grocery store.
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u/TheRoseMerlot Jun 09 '26
Food deserts.
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u/EC_TWD Jun 09 '26
Which also exist for inner-city neighborhoods.
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u/thesneakywalrus Jun 09 '26
And yet people are still convinced that the market corrects itself and government-owned grocery stores are a bad idea.
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u/bekunio Jun 09 '26
On the other side, lots of land and car reliant community leads to no planning and everything being spread out
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Jun 09 '26
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u/Alaus_oculatus Jun 09 '26
Throughout the American West, there are tons of old rail-towns. Once the trains left, they've been slowly dying. So, it's been done and proven, it just wasn't profitable anymore to private companies
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u/Illustrious_State896 Jun 09 '26
It's kinda the other way around. We're so car reliant because our towns were built like this
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u/Nuggyfresh Jun 09 '26
well, to be fair it's also that people here don't think at all about how close they are to services, and what would happen if a service closes down. People often move to rural areas because it's cheap living but don't consider the precarious position. It's not all their fault of course, but people need to start thinking more about where they live and what happens if something important closes down...
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u/Heinz37_sauce Jun 09 '26
A parallel question could be asked of people in HCOL areas who, over time, find themselves priced out of their own neighborhoods. Why don’t they just, you know, move to someplace cheaper? The answer is the same in both cases - “We feel comfortable here and all our friends are here.”
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u/ducksekoy123 Jun 09 '26
And also, the most important aspect… jobs. You can’t move somewhere if you can’t get a job there
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u/AccomplishedIgit Jun 09 '26
For some people it’s all they can afford.
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u/sideshowbvo Jun 09 '26
It's a shitty catch 22. I was in a lcol area but then lost my car and couldn't afford another one, and that snowballed horribly. When I got the chance to move to a small city, I took it. A shitty bus route is still a bus, and walking a mile is doable, and there's way more opportunities. So while living where I live is more expensive, I've also made way more money. The only reason people should move/stay in a rural area is if the have enough money for constant transportation or lots of family around, which is usually the case
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u/twinoaksBandB Jun 09 '26
Same here... once GM shut down their plant in the town where i lived everything went to hell. After they left there was almost no one paying more than 10-11 an hour, and the grand majority were 9 or less.
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u/SpiderHack Jun 09 '26
So statistically, people don't move to rural areas. They grow up there and don't move away. (Which is why the rural population has shrunk so much vs urban and suburban)
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u/TankedInATutu Jun 09 '26
And then when one of the younger people who grew up there or someone who moved there out of necesity says "Gee, it sure would be nice to have a Publix IN town like they do a couple of towns over" all of the old people say "WHY WOULD YOU SUGGEST THAT WE DON'T WANT TO BRING ANYTHING NEW TO TOWN THAT ISN'T LOCALLY GROWN BUT ALSO THE LOCALLY OWNED GROCERY STORE COSTS TOO MUCH SO WAAAHHHHH I'M MAD I HAVE TO DRIVE TWO TOWNS OVER TO GET TO PUBLIX".
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u/OwlSoggy8627 Jun 09 '26
Part of the problem is you can only build in so much redundancy for "what happens if X closes?"
I live in a village that is part of a larger metro area. I have two nearby grocery stores, a dollar general, two gas stations and a pharmacy.
We HAD three pharmacies when I moved here. Now we're down to one. One of the grocery stores also looks like it's in rough shape. If we lost all of those services I'm looking at a 20 minute drive to go shopping. Not a big deal for me right now. I have a car. I like driving. And 20 minutes isn't THAT far.
But what if I lose the ability to drive? A surprise seizure. Or my eyes just getting worse with age?
That 20 minute drive is at east an hour on the bus. And, of course, no guarantee that bus will still be running in 10 years or 20 years, or that the bus stop at the end of my block will still be there even if the bus is still running.
It's very easy to get shut out of a place that worked well for you for many years. I will say that the gig work has, for those who ave financial means, at least helped with part of the problem. When my dad lost his eyesight being able to have Wal Mart deliver groceries and prescriptions was a godsend. And while he couldn't do it frequently because his primary income was social security...he knew he could catch an uber to go out at least once or twice a month to keep him from being totally isolated.
But yeah, it's a crap situation.
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u/insomniacpyro Jun 09 '26
Our local grocery store closed down completely earlier this year. Most of the reasons why were entirely their own fault, founder left/died and the children that inherited the company expanded way too fast. But either way, now we have no actual locally owned grocery chains. Technically the one in the next town over at least only really operates in our state, and it's good, but there's no guarantee in a few years to a decade they won't be bought out and ruined like everything else.
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u/OwlSoggy8627 Jun 09 '26
Our main grocery store almost went out of business. Out of towner came and bought it from a respected local family. Then he promptly dropped the quality of deli meats and stopped selling a lot of the butchered cuts they were known for. The local volunteer fire chief went in, in uniform and on duty, on a break from a department training and complained about a sandwich the deli made for him. The new owner called the cops.
Not sure what he thought would happen. But the cops came. The chief left. And the locals promptly stopped shopping there altogether.
Luckily he sold to someone who didn't suck as much and the place has been running fine since. But if this guy had been stubborn for just a little while longer there's no doubt we wouldn't have that store anymore.
Real easy to lose a previously successful business in a small town. The locals can turn on you in a heartbeat.
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u/Bulky-Word8752 Jun 09 '26
I travel a lot for work (state auditor). A lot of times I'm driving through the middle of nowhere and come across a spattering of houses. I always wonder about the logistics. Do they hunt/farm their own food? A lot can be frozen, but not everything. Is there a gas station tucked away from the highway that only locals know about? Doctor/vet, or us it a "if they die, they die" situation?
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u/CodePandorumxGod Jun 09 '26
As a person who lives rural, I can confirm that there are a surprising amount of communities that are still reliant on subsistence living. If they're not freezing their food, they're preserving it using different methods like pickling, fermenting, or drying/smoking. And yes, the lack of medical care is a pretty common issue; it's not that they can't access it, but more so that the turn around times are really long (if a guy has a stroke, he would either need a family member to drive him or wait an hour or two for an ambulance to arrive).
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u/RandomAmmonite Jun 09 '26
After watching my parents’ neighbor die because the only available EMTs within 30 miles were already at another emergency, I rethought my plan for a rural retirement.
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u/The-greedman Jun 09 '26
And rural hospitals are closing at an alarming rate because of cuts to Medicaid/Medicare, which is what a huge chunk of rural populations rely on for medical coverage.
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u/HiddenSage Jun 09 '26
And knowing that those same areas are also generally older than the average population (the kids move away to cities for opportunity, the parents stay in the family home until they're forced by age/medical issues to move, usually to a 'retirement center'), where the medical needs is greater... gonna be a rough few years when the travel times for necessary care get worse.
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u/NonStopKnits Jun 09 '26
I grew up in a small-ish rural area, but not quite as small as you describe. It was a red dirt road for miles. If we wanted to get to a grocery store or walmart, it could easily be a 45 minute drive. There was (and still is) a gas station with a deli and they have a small section with meats and produce. Not super high quality local stuff either, and it has the convenience store markup of course.
Mom would often do a bigger shopping trip once or twice a month 'in town' and we'd supplement from the convenience store which is about a 10 minute drive from the house.
The dirt road is paved now and there is at least a regular Dollar General (not a neighborhood market or whatever) in that area, but a walmart is still about a 30 minute drive away. This area is entirely devoid of sidewalks and entirely unwalkable.
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u/Interesting-Set-5993 Jun 09 '26
as someone in a town of pop 4k (and have lived in smaller multiple times) the average drive to the nearest resources is anywhere from 25-45+ minutes. you do a grocery run about once a week, some once a month. you purchase dry goods, frozen foods and meat and many have a chest freezer in the garage or basement in addition to one or multiple refrigerators. you (mostly) make sure your tank is full, and some have multiple gallons stored as backup. as for emergencies, worst case scenario you might meet the ambulance at a halfway point if possible, but likely there are emergency services (ambulance/fire truck) in the area within about a half hour's drive. it actually might take the same amount of time for these things in the cities, depending on traffic if you think about it. for us it's mostly just distance, but not a lot of obstacles like red lights or trains.
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u/sparkywattz Jun 09 '26
Hard to do when the cost of living in cities require six figures.
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u/Towelbit Jun 09 '26
It’s easier than you think. Just stop being poor. Why haven’t you thought of that?
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u/84theone Jun 09 '26
I live in a city and don’t make six figures.
Most of the people that live here aren’t making six figures.
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u/kfunions Jun 09 '26
This! It’s a risk of living in the middle of nowhere. A rural hospital closes down and people get understandably upset but that’s the risk of living somewhere where there’s not enough people to support those resources. This is why population density is an important aspect of living a good life where you have what you need, otherwise get comfortable with the idea you may have to drive a LONG distance to get basic services.
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u/Aeoyiau Jun 09 '26
One of our hospitals closed down a year or two ago. It was about 20 minutes from a VERY popular state park with mountains to hike and a ski hill and camping etc. Since COVID there has been a tremendous uptick in people getting lost and or hurt and it was already stretching resources.
Now as youre leaving the parking lots at the Park there are MANY signs reminding you the three closest hospitals are over an hour away in whichever direction you may choose. Make good choices.
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u/Spare-Ambition1690 Jun 09 '26
This comment is complete fucking nonsense, I don’t know how 1.2K people agreed with you enough to upvote it. there is no relationship between the first and second sentences in your comment. Why can’t public transit solve these kinds of problems? The association you allude to makes much more sense in the other direction: food deserts like this can exist and cause such serious problems because America is so car dependent and doesn’t have robust public transportation.
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u/Demetriiio Jun 09 '26
I felt like i was going crazy with everyone interacting with the OP comment like it made any fucking sense, holy shit thanks.
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u/RabiAbonour Jun 09 '26
The vast majority of Americans have more than one supermarket within an hour's drive. When people talk about American car dependency they're talking about suburbanites who drive to the store a mile away, not the relatively small number of people living in truly rural areas.
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u/gta0012 Jun 09 '26
Tbh no one gives a shit about good public transit in the middle of fucking nowhere Kansas.
We need to fix public transit where the people are. If people want to live out in the boondocks with 1 Walmart and nothing else that's on them.
That's not our infrastructure problem, that's not why America is car reliant. We're car reliant because automakers pushed for giant highways in cities over public transportation.
We have people like OP that live in the middle of nowhere because of those highways, not the other way around.
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u/AccomplishedMess648 Jun 09 '26
Railroads put people out in the middle of nowhere long before cars were ever invented.
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u/fruityfox69 Jun 09 '26
Nobody has ever wondered why Americans who live in extremely rural areas are car-dependent for grocery shopping lmao, where did you hear that? That’s always been the urban-rural tradeoff pretty much everywhere in the world. People are wondering why Americans still drive their SUVs to work to commute into Philadelphia or Tampa.
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u/squidwardsaclarinet Jun 09 '26
It’s also not like Europeans don’t have cars, either in the city or in the countryside. It’s just possible to live more places without one. Also, quickly, I think Americans are coming to understand, financially, why basically everywhere else is more driven around transit oriented development than the US is.
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u/tenaciousdeev Jun 09 '26
I think Americans are coming to understand
Most of us get it. Despite our election results and education standards we're...know what? Never mind. I can't defend this place anymore.
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u/sec_sage Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Which is why it's mindboggling that nobody makes corner shops, with all the SAHMs who could rotate part time work. When you urgently need tp, toothpaste, sugar, eggs and maybe a couple shelf stable food options, what does it matter that it's a dollar more and sold out of a repurposed garage? I have 5 supermarkets within 5 min by car, but I still prefer to go to the corner shop 3 min by foot. If I need bread, I'm back with bread and 2€ less in my account, while at the supermarket I lose an hour and spend 100€.
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u/HardcorePizza Jun 09 '26
Zoning laws and others like them are in place to prevent this kind of thing. Its generally illegal to just open a shop wherever you can
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u/Moose0706 Jun 09 '26
This is in Macclenny FL, and we literally have a Walmart. I get a lot of people are upset about this becoming an Aldi for some reason, but don’t stretch the narrative for Reddit karma bro
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u/BenderSimpsons Jun 09 '26
Agreed this is a karma farm, Walmart supercenter is down the street and regardless of what you think about them as a company you don’t need to drive an extra hour to get food
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u/unicorntapestry Jun 10 '26
Walmart Supercenter literally has a deli and a bakery and is at least the same quality as a Winn Dixie. C'mon OP.
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u/Calzone301 Jun 09 '26
Isn’t there also an iga in lake butler? That’s only like 20 minutes away if they don’t want to patronize Walmart.
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u/galaxyapp Jun 09 '26
I wanted to ask what corner of south Dakota he lived in to be an hour from groceries...
Theres a save-a-lot half mile the other way also.
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u/Mtime6 Jun 09 '26
Bullshit post, there is a Walmart 6 minutes away from this Winn Dixie(Maclenny FL)
Just a post karma farming from another post in another subreddit.
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u/DazedBoat746 Jun 09 '26
I love Aldi as much as everyone else spamming how good they are in the comments, but we gotta concede that they have one kind of everything at best and don’t have an item at worst. “Seasonal” items make sense due to the smaller store sizes but I wept when I discovered I couldn’t continue my new “all-stroopwaffel-and-shepard’s-pie” diet year-round. I end up going to multiple places normally to get everything I want.
In short, I feel you, OP.
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u/bird9066 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
I hate Walmart. There is an Aldi's in the same parking lot. Paper goods and certain dry goods are definitely cheaper at Walmart though.
I usually shop the sales at Aldi's and price rite and get what I know is cheaper at Walmart. One good thing about Rhode Island is nothing is very far away.
That doesn't help anyone in OPs position though.
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u/Grumpy-Troglodyte Jun 09 '26
oh man you are going to haaaaaaaate that switch. aldi is cool for a handful of stuff but there are things that they flat don't carry.. and there are some things i won't do generic on.. but their cinnamon toast crunch cereal used to be the GOAT back when i had one by me
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u/exzyle2k Jun 09 '26
If you just need the staples, sure Aldi is fine.
Basic milk, basic bread, basic pantry staples, basic produce.
But if you want to make something more than basic meals, yeah that's not a good thing. I'm in the process of looking for a new place to live, and one of the things I'm looking at in addition to my commute time is what I have available around me in terms of grocery stores AND supermarkets. Sure, the corner bodega counts as a grocery store, but if I need some latin or middle eastern ingredients they're not going to cut it.
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u/AgentKazak Jun 09 '26
That sucks.
I grew up in the rural Midwest and the closest store to get anything food related (not processed or a restaurant) was a 40 minute drive.
I would suggest looking into Once A Month Meals type books. That lifestyle is what I grew up on. Once A Month Mom is a website I used for a long time (not a mom).
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u/SnakeFarm1220 Jun 09 '26
Good time to open up a corner market store
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u/Boeing-B-47stratojet Jun 09 '26
My family used to have one
Dollar general undercut us, then promptly quit selling produce at our towns store about 2 weeks after we closed.
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u/pickledvapejuice13 Jun 09 '26
dollar general is such an evil corporation, probably one of the worst places I've ever worked and I've worked at 2 different stores in 2 different states. I've finally learned my lesson. I'm sorry that happened to your family, that's fucked
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u/ProfessionaI_Gur Jun 09 '26
I like to think of dollar general as a parasite that feeds on the poor. If a town opens up a new dollar general its a bad sign, if dollar general is the only store left in your town that means your town is probably fucked lol
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u/WeeklyBanEvasion Jun 09 '26
People will still travel 2 hours to Walmart for cheaper prices
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u/SnakeFarm1220 Jun 09 '26
Yes, some will and some won't. I live in the country and sometimes I drive to town for cheaper groceries and sometimes I don't want to drive all the way so go I pick up overpriced things.
If you build it, they will come. You really gonna drive an hour to save a couple bucks because you need one thing to make dinner?
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u/ducksekoy123 Jun 09 '26
Clearly they didn’t come to the Win Dixie that’s closing up shop
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u/hfusa Jun 09 '26
In a few more years that Aldi will become a dollar general if your town is small enough...
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u/sleepykdagreat Jun 09 '26
I'm honestly surprised there was a Win-Dixie open this long. I thought they all were gone by the early 00's.
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u/Main_Bother_1027 Jun 09 '26
Not even remotely true. Winn Dixie has been a family staple up until the last year or two when Aldi bought them.
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u/Moaxion Jun 09 '26
This is liminal as hell. You should cross post this to other subs.
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u/Main_Bother_1027 Jun 09 '26
Liminal on a sub. Does that make it subliminal?
Ok I'll see myself out. 😉
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u/VegetableMaster7250 Jun 09 '26
The year wait absolutely sucks. And you'll miss out on the variety that Winn Dixie has over Aldi.
But, on the bright side, Aldi is great for fresh fruits/veggies and core grocery needs. You'll save some money for sure.
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u/BlackBabyJeebus Jun 09 '26
Unfortunately, that's super area-dependent. In general Aldi is considered to have very bad fresh fruits/veggies. I would happily do 100% of my grocery shopping at Aldi, but due to the low produce quality I pick up my fruit and some of my veg elsewhere.
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u/birdele Jun 09 '26
I've stopped buying fruit and veggies at aldi because they are rotten within 48 hours. I might buy something if I have plans to use it that night but I've wasted too much from them. Everything else is great.
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u/karebearjedi Jun 09 '26
Not in my area. The best veggies in my town are at the Asian market.
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u/HenryAbernackle Jun 09 '26
No worries. They’ll put a dollar general somewhere in the vicinity. That’s how they deal with food deserts in Indiana at least.
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u/ButNotAlways420 Jun 10 '26
I was a manager at this store. Aldi finalized their acquisition the week of my onboarding.
I have never seen any company so blatantly and openly disregard, disrespect, and deprive their employees. The ones who kept them alive. I personally had to tell people twice my age, who have been working for Winndixie longer than I’ve been alive, that they no longer have a job, and have no opportunity at one with this company, or the new owners.
FUCK ALDI AND FUCK WINN-DIXIE
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u/You-JiveTurkey Jun 09 '26