Transporting groceries from the store to households is a huge portion of food’s carbon footprint. Grocery stores make neighbourhoods feel like communities because they get people walking around and bumping into their neighbours. I’d say if you need to plan to pick-up groceries or get them delivered, then you don’t have food security – never mind how far the food took to get to the store.
500 metres is commonly used in urban planning because it’s the distance the average person walks in 5 minutes (I’ve previously used 400). For groceries, it’s the distance that old people can transport a few days worth of food on foot and young people are willing to “run out” to. Beyond 500 metres people start taking a car.
Alison recently asked me to comment on the viability of a permanent food market in Victoria. I say that’s putting the cart before the horse: many people in Victoria can’t even get to a regular grocery store! Council should figure out how to solve that key environmental, social and security issue before they start worrying about fancy markets.
Here are the 500-metre radii around full-service grocery stores in the municipality of Victoria:
There are food stores that are less than full service. They don’t have butchers, so carnivores who like fresh meat will have to shop somewhere else frequently. They have uneven produce quality and selection. I believe most people who live by these stores will regularly make a trip to a full-service grocery store. You can select the checkbox to display each store on the map:
