[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Can someone help me out here? I'm a country bumpkin, so maybe I don't know s--t about big city life:

How the Hell can you run a grocery store in the biggest, most diverse, most taxed, most regulated, and most congested city in the U.S.?

Are there even carts? Hand-baskets? Or does NYC's version of grocery stores consist of convenience stores and mini-marts on corners?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around on how if you need, for example, milk and toothpaste, you're not taking the subway and carrying it back to your 450 sq ft, $2,200 a month studio apartment.

[conservative98]

Whole Foods Columbus Circle

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x89c258f6222aa3bd%3A0xc583bb4da2f5d6f6!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP1eS-c0BU387Y1RLLiysttfowaZy2ZdYbcU79W%3Dw319-h240-k-no!5swhole%20foods%20shopping%20columbus%20circle%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipP1eS-c0BU387Y1RLLiysttfowaZy2ZdYbcU79W&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTzO3pvLDrAhVvlXIEHYWFDsgQoiowEnoECBMQBg

[gcparent]

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.

[PGR88]

How the Hell can you run a grocery store in the biggest, most diverse, most taxed, most regulated, and most congested city in the U.S.?

You charge double the price in normal places.

[jmacusa]

Manhattan NYC tends towards ‘’whole food’’ type stores where the mostly upscale hipsters are encouraged to bring their own cloth bags or other means of carrying their purchases home. No plastic as they’re ‘’saving the planet’’.

[pepsionice]

You need (well, a year or two before this mess started up) have gone for a couple of days to NY City and just walked around. Things don’t function or relate to normal places in the rest of the US.

I always had this image of the subway system (I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe and seen first-class subways). Then I finally did the NY trip around eight years ago. My image went ‘south’, and I just started laughing. You get off a subway car and make your way to the ground-level....then pull out sanitizer to get the grit off you.

[gitmo]

I have wondered the same thing.

[oblomov]

First, people in NY do eat out a lot, much more often than people do elsewhere.

There are grocery stores. Most NYers shop at them, and avoid bodegas/convenience stores because they are much more expensive.

There are hand cart and also mini-pushcarts in most stores. Many people bring their own folding carts, since one has to get the goods back home without a vehicle.

[ronnie raygun]

Many are neighborhood fencing operations for all sorts of crimes, selling drugs, laundering, cashing in social service checks, government checks, handing out credit, loan sharking , gambling you name it

[caww]

People are filling their back packs with merchandise with no fear the law will catch up with them.....they actually tell the store owners the law, that they’re not gonna get locked up......and of course broadcasting no arrests for retail theft was the biggest mistake the city ever made.

[Miss Didi]

Can someone help me out here? I'm a country bumpkin, so maybe I don't know s--t about big city life: How the Hell can you run a grocery store in the biggest, most diverse, most taxed, most regulated, and most congested city in the U.S.?

Are there even carts? Hand-baskets? Or does NYC's version of grocery stores consist of convenience stores and mini-marts on corners?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around on how if you need, for example, milk and toothpaste, you're not taking the subway and carrying it back to your 450 sq ft, $2,200 a month studio apartment.

We have all sorts of grocery-type stores in Manhattan...from chain supermarkets to health food stores to small bodegas. We use shopping carts and small baskets. Since Big Fredo put in the plastic bag ban, some stores started charging 5 cents for a shopping bag so you can bring a tote. However, during the virus they have let it slide and most stores are providing bags again. We also have fruit/veggie stands on every other corner which are great for in-season produce. I try to support them as much as I can as they are there every day, rain or shine, all day long. As far as getting home with bags from the grocery store, the fruit man or Bed Bath & Beyond we just carry them or schlep...it's good for the arms. And if you can't, you jump in a cab, hop on a bus or have it delivered.

[SamAdams76]

I'm actually a fan of the supermarkets in and around Manhattan. They need to be creative to make use of every square inch of space. Imagine a 100,000 sq. ft. Wegman's crammed into a tiny 2,500 sq. ft. space wedged on a corner of 2nd Ave and 63rd St for example. They just find a way to make it work while offering the same variety of goods.

It's super expensive though, compared to what you find in the suburbs. The Kerrygold cheese is $7 compared to $2.50 at the Big Y in Danbury, CT. But people who live there generally don't even look at the price.

There are hardware stores in the city that are also amazing. They have these tiny little stores that have pretty much anything you could find in a Home Deport or Lowe's.