You need a pretty big family before doing shopping by bus is not feasible.
I'm 34, Norwegian, have lived most of my life in Norway and England, and have no drivers license. Never learned to drive, because I've never felt the need to.
I do the family shopping for my small family of 3 on my commute home. I rarely need to pick anything up more than 2-3 times a week, and usually I only need one "big" round of shopping per week. It's never so much that I can't take it with me on the train, then walk to the bus stop and take it with me on the bus, in addition to my fairly heavy bag of gym shoes + clothes. If we had another child or two I might end up going to the shops once more a week, or my wife might end up having to help out with the shopping more often.
While I might've saved a little bit here and there on buying larger quantities, not having the cost of car makes up for it many times over.
For that matter, not having a car saves us so much that we can easily afford delivery charger and/or taking a cab back if we ever want to do really large amounts of shopping, and still save money.
In other words: Apart from a really small number of people that live in so rural areas that they are not properly served by public transport (I'm talking about Europe here) and are too far away to walk, it's not about needs but about perceived convenience.
But I don't even want a car. Apart from the cost, there's all the hassle of keeping it in a decent condition. I'd rather just pay for the service on the rare occasions I need it. Though I may consider getting a drivers license to at least have the option of renting a driverless car now and again.
I'm 34, Norwegian, have lived most of my life in Norway and England, and have no drivers license. Never learned to drive, because I've never felt the need to.
I do the family shopping for my small family of 3 on my commute home. I rarely need to pick anything up more than 2-3 times a week, and usually I only need one "big" round of shopping per week. It's never so much that I can't take it with me on the train, then walk to the bus stop and take it with me on the bus, in addition to my fairly heavy bag of gym shoes + clothes. If we had another child or two I might end up going to the shops once more a week, or my wife might end up having to help out with the shopping more often.
While I might've saved a little bit here and there on buying larger quantities, not having the cost of car makes up for it many times over.
For that matter, not having a car saves us so much that we can easily afford delivery charger and/or taking a cab back if we ever want to do really large amounts of shopping, and still save money.
In other words: Apart from a really small number of people that live in so rural areas that they are not properly served by public transport (I'm talking about Europe here) and are too far away to walk, it's not about needs but about perceived convenience.
But I don't even want a car. Apart from the cost, there's all the hassle of keeping it in a decent condition. I'd rather just pay for the service on the rare occasions I need it. Though I may consider getting a drivers license to at least have the option of renting a driverless car now and again.