Grocery shopping without a car

So it’s been roughly a year and eight months since I sold my fire-engine red Honda Accord with a V-8 engine (yes, it could fricking fly and yes, it was just a little bit of my mid-life crisis car since I couldn’t afford a BMW) and we moved to New York City carless.

So you might ask how does one shop – especially for groceries –when all you buy has to be carried home.  Well here’s how we’ve made it work:

Citarella's seafood counter

First, we don’t necessarily go with the adage of buy just what you need today, but we’re close.  The nice thing is there are multiple places to pop into when you do just need a couple of items. Whether it’s the small grocery a 2-minute walk from my Barnard office with good produce and meat departments or the fruit and vegetable stand guys on street corners throughout the Upper West Side where you can literally buy five bananas for a dollar or a green pepper for 25 cents. Or I can pop into Citarella (still my favorite grocery, albeit also the most expensive) for seafood, cheese or an amazing cut of beef or grab a baguette from my favorite bakery on the corner as I exit the subway station.

Next, Amazon is our best friend.  All the staples or anything heavy – they all show up in our lobby for a quick trip up the elevator to reside on the floor of our bedroom closet (aka the pantry). Doesn’t matter if it's canned black beans, diced tomatoes or Cream of Chicken soup (Healthy Request version for a comforting chicken casserole) or boxed chicken broth, oven fried mix or Missy’s food.  It’s so much easier – and cheaper – to go to Amazon.

The Duane Reade (aka Walgreen in other areas of the country) has a great food selection –dairy, ice cream (my current favorite is Haggen Dazs Carmel Cone), nuts, frozen appetizers and a small selection of grocery staples and household goods.

When it’s warm we walk 20 minutes on Sundays to the farmers market near the Museum of Natural History for a wonderful selection of produce, locally-raised duck, and all kinds of jam, honey and other canned goods.

And finally, we have a Trader Joe’s literally a five-minute walk away – yes, I know there are people who are incredibly jealous that it’s so close – but it is so crowded – not just sometimes, but always, that we only pop in there early mornings or late evenings.