[Miss Didi]

There are few grocery stores. The stores have hand baskets. Most kitchen are small even the refrigerators are small. You pick up a few things at a small, neighborfood store. People eat out.

That is not true at all. In my Manhattan neighborhood I can walk a few blocks and find several major supermarkets, quite a few Italian specialty stores, health food stores as well as bakeries, pastry shops, meat markets, outdoor farmer markets, fruit/veggie stands, etc. Apartment kitchens are smaller, and we don't have lots of storage space for stocking up, but people still grocery shop, cook at home, and eat in.

[gcparent]

Shopped at Zabars and Fairway and other small places you mentioned when I lived in NYC. Not a lot of big grocery stores as in the suburbs. No car to transport groceries. Young singles don’t cook.