D and I were making yet another trip for office supplies yesterday and I remarked on how convenient the area we were going to was as it had 3 out of 4 stores we needed.
He agreed even though he is a long time proponent of "downtown shopping" vs. "big box store in generic edge of town plaza" shopping.
I was thinking that even though we aren't supporting our "downtown" on this occasion, we were spending less gas by going to the edge of the city. In reality, what we were looking for didn't exist "downtown" but even it did, it made more sense to us not to go this time.
Another example of this phenomenon is the idea of living "downtown" and being able to walk everywhere. In our case (perhaps we live in a strange area...), it is actually more expensive to live "downtown" as well as to buy groceries. Plus there would be high level of temptation to shop and eat out.
Where we currently live, it is easy to buy direct from nearby farmers and pick our own fruit. Downtown, where the version of a "market" is a highly modernized one, you end up being charged higher prices to offset the higher cost of rent.
Speaking of eating out, we've done a lot of that this last week. Both of us have been so tired from working our regular jobs as well as prepare for the move. We intend next week to be easier.
I would love to live in an area close to a downtown so I can walk to a cafe or bookstore but we don't have a "downtown" in the town we live in. Oh well... But I think you're right. I would be tempted to spend more money if there were restaurants and stores a block away from my house.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandra!
ReplyDeleteI do notice that I tend to want to sit at cafes, drinking stuff I normally wouldn't just to soak in the atmosphere.
Then I'll go buy a snack from a new place I haven't been before or buy produce from a new upscale supermarket etc. etc.
All of a sudden, I've spent our grocery money on really nothing that could feed us well for the week!