Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Grocery Stores
(05-13-2019, 09:15 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(05-13-2019, 09:07 AM)KevinL Wrote: I don't live downtown, but I am car-free and successfully do 95% of my shopping on foot or transit. A sturdy bundle buggy (bag cart), along with reusable bags (including thermal ones for cold items), is typically enough to bring home items from all over town.

That said, I'm physically fit and have no children or other considerations. But it works for me.

Can I ask where you live?

I generally feel that DTK and Uptown are two places that it is easy to live car free in the city, I believe there are probably other places, with good transit and walkable areas, but I haven't personally experienced them, so I'm curious.  I had thought near Belmont Village might be a good option as well, but I cannot say for sure--transit is perhaps weak there.

I live in the Belmont Village area and can say that car free living is absolutely possible here. In my (obviously biased) opinion, it is one of the best neighbourhoods in the city and often overlooked. 

As for transit, I can quickly walk to the LRT at GRH station.
More Transit: iExpress, the 7 and 8 all run down Park Street. The 4 runs up Glasgow, providing easy access to the Boardwalk and all of the big box shops there.
Uptown and downtown are a 10-15 minute walk in either direction or a quick bike ride.
The Iron Horse Trail is right at your doorstep.
Healthcare services are available in/around GRH.
Central Fresh handles supermarket duties and while some things are expensive there, their sale items and meat prices in particular offset that.
Swanson's Home Hardware on Park Street has everything you need from a home improvement perspective and is a Canadian company to boot.
There are a multitude of restaurants with varied flavours in the local area, ensuring something is available for pretty much any appetite.

Need I go on?  Big Grin
Reply


(05-13-2019, 03:37 PM)Section ThirtyOne Wrote: Uptown and downtown are a 10-15 minute walk in either direction or a quick bike ride.

I do agree that it's walkable, but I think these two estimates are a bit optimistic. Smile Mr Google says it's 1.3 km to Waterloo City Hall (from Rexall in Belmont Village) and 2.4 km to Kitchener City Hall, so I'd say 15 minutes' walk to central Waterloo for most people, and 25-30 minutes to DTK.

I've walked the distance often enough in the other direction!
Reply
(05-13-2019, 05:00 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(05-13-2019, 03:37 PM)Section ThirtyOne Wrote: Uptown and downtown are a 10-15 minute walk in either direction or a quick bike ride.

I do agree that it's walkable, but I think these two estimates are a bit optimistic. Smile  Mr Google says it's 1.3 km to Waterloo City Hall (from Rexall in Belmont Village) and 2.4 km to Kitchener City Hall, so I'd say 15 minutes' walk to central Waterloo for most people, and 25-30 minutes to DTK.

I've walked the distance often enough in the other direction!

I can walk to Valumart or the Shops in 10 minutes from our place, but I do admit the downtown timeframe was quite optimistic.  Big Grin

The rest of my points still stand!
Reply
Yes! If I wanted to live in a house again, this area would definitely be on my list.
Reply
Looks like central DTK will be getting a grocer in the Eaton's space, https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/...2#pid85072 .
Reply
Here's the chain's site, if you want a sense of their offerings. https://www.marcheleos.com/
Reply
I always wondered why nobody grabbed that space for a grocery store a long time ago. It has been available for a long time.
Reply


(10-14-2020, 06:08 PM)KevinL Wrote: Here's the chain's site, if you want a sense of their offerings. https://www.marcheleos.com/

Thanks for the links, I didn't look too closely, but the prices aren't as bad as I expected, definitely similar to Vinchenzos, I would have expected a substantial Toronto tarif.

I do think this is the kind of thing that will continue to push out previous residents of DTK, or at a minimum, be of little value to them.

I love living in DTK, but I really wish the city had the appetite/ability to bring the good things about DTK to other parts of the city, a little more aggressively.
Reply
(10-14-2020, 07:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I do think this is the kind of thing that will continue to push out previous residents of DTK, or at a minimum, be of little value to them.

How, exactly?

(10-14-2020, 07:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I love living in DTK, but I really wish the city had the appetite/ability to bring the good things about DTK to other parts of the city, a little more aggressively.

Just out of curiosity, what specific "good things" are you referring to?

Personally, every suburb I've lived in has had a more walkable grocery store than DTK, and that's certainly not a compliment to the suburbs. So for me I'm happy to see something "good" about the other parts of the city being brought to DTK.
Reply
(10-14-2020, 08:39 PM)dtkvictim Wrote:
(10-14-2020, 07:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I do think this is the kind of thing that will continue to push out previous residents of DTK, or at a minimum, be of little value to them.

How, exactly?

Individuals who are counting every penny they spend on groceries aren't going to be shopping there. It's gentrification. They've suffered through not having a full service supermarket for years, this isn't going to change that.

(10-14-2020, 08:39 PM)dtkvictim Wrote:
(10-14-2020, 07:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I love living in DTK, but I really wish the city had the appetite/ability to bring the good things about DTK to other parts of the city, a little more aggressively.

Just out of curiosity, what specific "good things" are you referring to?

Personally, every suburb I've lived in has had a more walkable grocery store than DTK, and that's certainly not a compliment to the suburbs. So for me I'm happy to see something "good" about the other parts of the city being brought to DTK.

I don't know if I'd say that any suburb I've lived in has had a walkable grocery store, I don't think I've ever been to a walkable suburban grocery store on this continent. Just to be clear, I don't consider a grocery store that I can technically walk to, but which is surrounded by miles of parking and dangerous roads, "walkable", but I'm sure that's a question of definition, it's certainly not pleasant to walk to.

But leaving aside the lack of a grocery store, DTK is generally a walkable, car-light place. Yes, I do complain aboout jackasses racing their noisy cars up the street, but at the end of the day, it's mostly not the 4-5 lanes of traffic that virtually every other part of the city gets to deal with (mind you, I live well away from Weber and Victoria), we have less cars and traffic violence than your average suburb, and I can walk to far more places than I could in any suburb I've ever lived in. I am able to live car free and feel relatively unencumbered by doing so. Even in winter, at least one direction from my home has clear sidewalks.
Reply
I have a walkable grocery store in the suburbs. FOOD BASICS in the Lacnkner area. STANLEY Park has Zehrs. Just two examples. I walk to my Foodbasics with the kids all the time .
Reply
(10-14-2020, 10:12 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: I have a walkable grocery store in the suburbs.  FOOD BASICS  in the Lacnkner area.  STANLEY Park has Zehrs.  Just two examples.  I walk to my Foodbasics with the kids all the time .

I did say that some may have differing definitions of walkable, but also that I absolutely did not consider a car oriented grocery store, surrounded by acres of parking, and where pedestrians are forced to walk far out of their way through huge parking lots in order to get to the store to be "walkable"...

Yes, you *can* walk to them, I do also, because food is something I do need to get occasionally. But that doesn't mean that walking is a welcoming pleasant or in any way prioritized experienced.

But now I am repeating myself. Did you have a different point in mind?
Reply
(10-14-2020, 09:47 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I don't know if I'd say that any suburb I've lived in has had a walkable grocery store, I don't think I've ever been to a walkable suburban grocery store on this continent. Just to be clear, I don't consider a grocery store that I can technically walk to, but which is surrounded by miles of parking and dangerous roads, "walkable", but I'm sure that's a question of definition, it's certainly not pleasant to walk to.

But leaving aside the lack of a grocery store, DTK is generally a walkable, car-light place. Yes, I do complain aboout jackasses racing their noisy cars up the street, but at the end of the day, it's mostly not the 4-5 lanes of traffic that virtually every other part of the city gets to deal with (mind you, I live well away from Weber and Victoria), we have less cars and traffic violence than your average suburb, and I can walk to far more places than I could in any suburb I've ever lived in. I am able to live car free and feel relatively unencumbered by doing so. Even in winter, at least one direction from my home has clear sidewalks.

Is Richmond a suburb? I've walked to T&Ts there. Walked past 3 going from point A to point B.

Normally I live 5 minutes from the Sobey's on Weber and Bridgeport. Neither of those streets are walkable, but happily I need to cross neither of them to get to the grocery store. I really dislike the window treatment at the Moore's which hides cars that might hit you, but other than that, I'd say that it is reasonable to walk to that Sobey's if you live on the right side of Weber and Bridgeport.
Reply


(10-14-2020, 11:14 PM)plam Wrote:
(10-14-2020, 09:47 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I don't know if I'd say that any suburb I've lived in has had a walkable grocery store, I don't think I've ever been to a walkable suburban grocery store on this continent. Just to be clear, I don't consider a grocery store that I can technically walk to, but which is surrounded by miles of parking and dangerous roads, "walkable", but I'm sure that's a question of definition, it's certainly not pleasant to walk to.

But leaving aside the lack of a grocery store, DTK is generally a walkable, car-light place. Yes, I do complain aboout jackasses racing their noisy cars up the street, but at the end of the day, it's mostly not the 4-5 lanes of traffic that virtually every other part of the city gets to deal with (mind you, I live well away from Weber and Victoria), we have less cars and traffic violence than your average suburb, and I can walk to far more places than I could in any suburb I've ever lived in. I am able to live car free and feel relatively unencumbered by doing so. Even in winter, at least one direction from my home has clear sidewalks.

Is Richmond a suburb? I've walked to T&Ts there. Walked past 3 going from point A to point B.

Normally I live 5 minutes from the Sobey's on Weber and Bridgeport. Neither of those streets are walkable, but happily I need to cross neither of them to get to the grocery store. I really dislike the window treatment at the Moore's which hides cars that might hit you, but other than that, I'd say that it is reasonable to walk to that Sobey's if you live on the right side of Weber and Bridgeport.

I have walked to the Sobey's plaza at Bridgeport and Weber. It is extremely unwalkable. When you suggest that you must be "on the right of the road" that is a very strong indicator that a place is highly unwalkable.

As I will now have said 3 times, "walkable" does not mean to me "it is physically possible to walk there". For a place to be "walkable" it has to be at least as accessible, pleasant, and safe by foot as it is by car.

I too routinely walk all over our city, and to grocery stores, to many places which I do not consider walkable. I do so because I live here, and I don't own a car, so I make the best of it, but I have also seen what it could be like, and I don't mean in other countries, I mean even in Uptown Waterloo, visiting the Valumart for example, or to pick a more suburban experience, but without a supermarket...Belmont Village.

As for Richmond, I have never been there, so I cannot speak to it, but to clarify, my use of the term to specify a suburban context, not a city defined as a suburb of a larger metro area. AFAIK Richmond is a suburb of the Greater Vancouver Area, and I would assume that like most larger suburbs it would have both more suburban and more urban areas. But I have never been there so I cannot speak to it.
Reply
(10-14-2020, 11:53 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I have walked to the Sobey's plaza at Bridgeport and Weber. It is extremely unwalkable. When you suggest that you must be "on the right of the road" that is a very strong indicator that a place is highly unwalkable.

As I will now have said 3 times, "walkable" does not mean to me "it is physically possible to walk there". For a place to be "walkable" it has to be at least as accessible, pleasant, and safe by foot as it is by car.

I too routinely walk all over our city, and to grocery stores, to many places which I do not consider walkable. I do so because I live here, and I don't own a car, so I make the best of it, but I have also seen what it could be like, and I don't mean in other countries, I mean even in Uptown Waterloo, visiting the Valumart for example, or to pick a more suburban experience, but without a supermarket...Belmont Village.

As for Richmond, I have never been there, so I cannot speak to it, but to clarify, my use of the term to specify a suburban context, not a city defined as a suburb of a larger metro area. AFAIK Richmond is a suburb of the Greater Vancouver Area, and I would assume that like most larger suburbs it would have both more suburban and more urban areas. But I have never been there so I cannot speak to it.

There are at least two factors here: (a) where you are coming from; (b) where you are going. If a place fails on (b) then it's just not walkable. That plaza does not fail (b). Getting there can fail, depending on where you are coming from. Sure, ideally, it would not be next to two highways. But that doesn't mean that it's not walkable for some number of people, even if small. I would say that a place doesn't have to be walkable to from everywhere to be walkable.

(Belmont Village did used to have the Vincenzo's, but it was pretty cramped).
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links