for my neighborhood it's stupid, if i have enough phlem i could spit at this whole foods they are building, OR i can drive 6 minutes to a farmers market... which is oddly enough behind a staples(yea the office store, whatever), or i can walk there in 12minutes and really "be green". (it actually takes a while to drive there b/c i live on a super busy street, 2 blocks away from the city center, so it's bumper/bumper mostly, and the street the farmers market is on is a one way, so i gotta make a big ass loop to get to it)
i love where i just moved, it's in the city and "almost" as fresh as when i was in PA, do you know what i had in PA? i had the ****ing Amish, and i had LAZY, trusting Amish. They would have this wooden stand/stall put it outside their farm, stack it full of freshly pulled tomatoes/squash and ****, list the prices and just put out a jar. And it was always full of $$$, everyone seemed to pay, actually there was this indian family that stole, i was walking up to the stand (i'm probably 2minutes out, and i'd walk with my dog, do some shopping, walk the dog... good times) they came in, grabbed a variety of veggies and kept on walking (since they had no bag, it's just in their hands, i carried one of those grocer bags since i knew i'd be shopping). i scream at them "did you pay?!" they just looked at me blankly, then i ran at them... with my big ass red german sheppard, they dropped the veggies and ran away. i had to pick up their stolen goods, put em back on the stand (hey it came from the ground! pretty sure it's still clean), then shopped and payed. it was CHEAP too, like 1$ for a fricking squash the size of an adult forearm.
anyway, offtopic, i'm mad cuz i'm sure this whole foods would be filled with fat ass soccer moms and mini vans "buying fresh" when a farmers market (which isn't "that" presentable compared to a whole foods) is 6minutes away.
i buy all my veggies from the farmers market, 6min drive (once a week, or every 5 days)
i buy all my "meats" from 1 particular chain that has consistantly low prices and good quality, 9min drive (once a week, or every 5 days)
i goto the asian (chinese) market 20min drive (twice a month)
i goto the korean market (h-mart) 30min drive (once a month or twice a month if wife really wants lots of kimchee)
i think you have to factor in
1. time
2. gas
as well.