How accessible are whole foods and natural ingredients in small-town America?
Posted by MrOaiki@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 88 comments
If you visit a typical supermarket in a random American town, you’ll likely find items like “Cinnamon & Sugar Oatmeal,” cans of baked beans, loaves of bread, and similar processed foods. But how easy is it to find unprocessed or minimally processed foods, such as oats, seeds, nuts, unbleached flour, fresh produce, and dried beans? To clarify, I know the U.S. has a wide variety of foods. My question is specifically about the availability of these items in areas outside large cities and affluent communities.
Scratocrates@reddit
Who is the "you" in this situation? You personally OP, or the folks in the videos you watched? They curated what they showed you to suit the agenda of their videos. All real grocery/supermarkets will have fresh foods and staple ingredients.
TheBimpo@reddit
Seriously.
Here's a "typical supermarket" found in a town of 3,000 people in northern Michigan. The European mind could not comprehend the variety and bounty available.
o93mink@reddit
This is the kind of shit that actually led to the dissolution of the largest country in Europe within my lifetime.
TheBimpo@reddit
Boris Yeltsin visits a supermarket
Raving_Lunatic69@reddit
Where do you think those whole foods and natural ingredients are grown?
MrOaiki@reddit (OP)
Depends on which ones. I'm guessing potatoes in Idaho? Oats in Minnesota maybe?
SonofBronet@reddit
…what is wrong with you people
o93mink@reddit
Imagine if you spent like 16 hours a day thinking about a country on the other side of the world you’d never visited and had only seen through YouTube videos. You’d have some wildass ideas too.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
Oh my! Do you ever have a huge misunderstanding of America. Yes, agribusiness does grow potatoes in Idaho, but those industrial farms don’t affect with available in grocery stores.
Small and rural town America grow much of their own produce grown by local farmers and many grocery stores carry local produce. Then the produce grown by large and corporate farmers is also carried by the same grocery stores
danhm@reddit
Both of those grow readily in almost the entire country. They are incredibly easy to find.
TheBimpo@reddit
We have a pretty vast network of highways that allows food distribution of bananas grown in Costa Rica or strawberries from Mexico or whatever to be delivered all the way to the most far-flung corners of the country.
MrLongWalk@reddit
You should not guess, as a European you should try to research more.
ReebX1@reddit
Every real grocery store has fresh fruits and vegetables, even Aldi. Most convenience stories won't though, but that's because they are mostly there to be gas stations.
Some tiny towns won't have a proper grocery store, but there's usually one within 20 miles or so. Which would be around 32km.
TheBimpo@reddit
Aldi aren't found in small town America though. I live in small town America, we have to travel to the city to find Aldi.
Small towns have local stores like Rogers', Neiman's, or IGA. The unfortunate thing for many rural and small town folks is that those small town stores don't have the same buying power as Aldi or Kroger, so goods are MUCH more expensive than a city supermarket. My local stores have prices closer to that of Whole Foods for most of their merchandise.
Tiny towns are also increasingly serviced by Dollar General, who despite their well-earned reputation, have launched an entire new brand called "DG Market", that offers an expanded variety of fresh foods due to demand. One of these opened in the township adjacent to mine that has about 3,300 residents and they're building another one about 5 miles down the road in a rural location.
DrGeraldBaskums@reddit
What do you consider small town? I have an Aldi in my 20k person town
TheBimpo@reddit
I would have to drive an hour and a half to get to a municipality of 20,000 people. That’s a small city.
CPA_Lady@reddit
In Mississippi, you can just pull off the road and buy all kinds of stuff from the back of somebody’s truck. Farmer’s markets are big here as well.
Murky-Substance-7393@reddit
I live in a small town of about 1,400 people but I'm a bout 20 from a city of 170,000 so I have access to about every commodity imaginable. Almost every small town, including mine, has a weekly farmers market with fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, honey, and from-scratch baked goods. Go into the large town and there are two large farmers markets every weekend in the summertime. Being rurally located it is quite common for people to have gardens and fruit trees. I am an avid hunter so I harvest a lot of wild game and buy local livestock to slaughter at local meat processors.
Kittalia@reddit
Not only that, but a lot of the "lost variety" in a smaller supermarket is actually in processed food options, not fresh foods and shelf staples. For example in the town I lived in a few years ago, my local stores had very similar produce, bread, potatoes, meat etc to the larger one that was 20 minutes away, but I had to make the trip across town for things like premade Mexican or Indian sauces because the smaller stores didn't carry them. They had a lot of the processed foods available, but in less variety—all the famous brands of chips but not every flavor and things like that. (Note that this wasn't really a rural area—but the same pattern tends to hold in rural stores I've visited. And similarly, rural people tend to travel farther for food but they still have access to it—buying their weekly fresh food and staples from the one grocery store in town and then driving an hour or two away a few times a year to bulk buy things they can only get at a big grocery store. Often they might time those trips with doctor appointments since their small town either only has a GP or has no doctors at all, or other big errands that need to happen rarely.
cdb03b@reddit
All grocery stores will have those things, typically in great variety. What will not have them are Convenience Stores, which are basically there to sell gas and snacks.
MetroBS@reddit
I’m sorry to tell you that you have fallen victim to anti-American propaganda
rawbface@reddit
I have NEVER been to a grocery story that didn't sell these things. Your perception of the US is ignorant. It doesn't reflect reality.
AnalogNightsFM@reddit
Did you know that most foods you eat have been processed?
It’s defined as:
So, this would include cheese, milk, and flour, even unbleached flour.
MrOaiki@reddit (OP)
I added "minimally processed foods" to cover that.
AnalogNightsFM@reddit
There isn’t a gauge on processed, minimally nor otherwise. If it’s been changed from its natural state, it’s been processed. Oats are mechanically separated from the germ, endosperm, and bran. They’ve been processed further by so-called steel cutting or rolled. You don’t buy oats as grass. They’ve been processed.
G17Gen3@reddit
You don't get it. There's "good" processed (whatever they do to food outside of America) and "bad" processed (what they do to food in America). You should only eat "good" processed food.
cbrooks97@reddit
I've never been in a grocery store that didn't have this.
Rare-Ad-6429@reddit
Your logic is somewhat backwards.
Small town America might only have one grocery store in a 30 mile radius, but that grocery store will be full of fresh fruits and vegetables which are very likely sourced locally, fresh meat, and plenty of raw foods as well as some of the more processed stuff. What you can't find from the grocery store, you probably know someone that grows it or makes it, if you don't already yourself.
It's harder to get fresh fruits and veggies in dense urban areas, since those areas are more likely to have smaller bodega style places and not a full grocer.
Bluemonogi@reddit
I live in a city of 3,000 people in a rural area of Kansas.
You can buy plain oatmeal, dried beans, unbleached flour, fresh produce, fresh meats at the local store. You don’t have to live on premade meals. Those things are pretty easy to get. What you might not find at the local store is some spices, some kinds of meat/seafood, some kinds of fresh produce. It is harder to get something like lamb or pork belly for example.
20 years ago options were even more limited.
lisasimpsonfan@reddit
I grew up in rural Ohio. We had a small store. Even they had whole foods like produce and flour. They didn't have the variety of a larger grocery store but they had the basics. Like they might only have two or three kinds/sizes of flour vs a larger store have ten or more. It was about 30 minutes to the nearest large store so it was a weekly trip
TheBimpo@reddit
Which is how the vast majority of people in rural areas get their groceries. We don't "go down to the corner" to pick up spinach. There is no "corner". We drive an hour every week or two to a supermarket in town and stock up. Driving is how rural people get things.
lisasimpsonfan@reddit
Yep. Every Friday, my Grandpa and I would drive into town, go out to dinner and then do our weekly shopping. My Grandparents started doing that way since they were married
TheBimpo@reddit
This has been the way rural people have gotten their food for generations. What they didn't grow, harvest, or hunt...they went to town for.
WalMart exists in small towns because they serve the entire surrounding area and people drive to get there. Rural people drive everywhere and drive long distances to get things.
flying_wrenches@reddit
Most stores will have stuff like that.
Sometimes I have to go to the larger/specific store for specific organic stuff.
For example, Quaker brand yellow corn meal is the best one for cornbread imo, I have to go to a Kroger (supermarket) 20 minutes away for it. Or order it online. But it’s because I’m picky for that specific brand and not because most places don’t have corn meal..
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
After trying many different brands of corn meal, my go to is Bob’s Red Mill brand. Makes the best cornbread.
FemboyEngineer@reddit
If you're way out in the boonies, there might not be a proper grocery store within 40 km of your residence; the best thing close to you might be a Dollar General which will only carry the barest of offerings. But any actual supermarket will carry everything you've described.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
I have a dollar general out in the middle of nowhere and it has a good variety of produce
WashuOtaku@reddit
Typically though, a family will still drive the distance to a proper grocery store and load-up at least once a week. I think that's something the European mind cannot comprehend, that we would buy a week or two worth of food all in one trip, using a vehicle and having large and/or multiple refrigerators and freezers.
danhm@reddit
You'll see plain oats right next to the flavored instant oats. Cans of pinto or black beans, or bags of dry beans, right next to the baked beans. Every grocery store sells a large selection of every item you listed. If they don't you are not in a grocery store.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
Rural communities usually have a lot of farmers on hand and farmers markets plus grocery stores that carry fruits and veggies. Where I live almost every household grows their own tomatoes and okra. We all share whatever crops are abundant (usually zucchini lol, there’s always lots of zucchini). Also even though some of the knowledge is being lost, many of us older folks can and dehydrate the excess we grow.
I’m talking real rural America here, but I’ve also lived on the west coast where a lot of the farms are, and fresh fruits and veggies coming in from Mexico can not be beat.
It’s usually the inner city neighborhoods that have LESS access to fresh produce because if the food desert phenomenon in inner city neighborhoods
cavall1215@reddit
I go back to a small Indiana town frequently to visit family. Their grocery store has all these items. It's pretty standard to carry everything you listed even in a smaller grocery store. However, their produce selection will probably be a bit more limited. Some of that is due to their customers being less interested in the trendiest food items.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
How is it you're so sure that every grocery store has "bad" things, but are so unsure about whether "good" things are available? You seem to be equating regular grocery stores with convenience stores.
Even rural grocery stores have fresh foods and basic ingredients like dried beans. Likely not in the variety you'd find at an urban upscale market, but they're definitely available.
MrOaiki@reddit (OP)
If it's anything like here in Europe, the big brand ready-made processed foods like serials and frozen pizzas are available everywhere, from small gas stations to large supermarkets. So I just took for granted that they're available everywhere in the US too. Is that assumption wrong?
TheBimpo@reddit
This is true, you can get processed food at the supermarket, grocery store, convenience store, or gas station.
But that's not the only thing a supermarket stocks.
At a supermarket, grocery store, co-op, general store, Amish creamery, butcher shop, farmer's market or any of the huge variety of other sources? Very, very easy. At a gas station or convenience store? YMMV.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
Yes, those processed foods are available everywhere, but your post assumes incorrectly that them being available means that fresh foods and/or basic ingredients aren't available.
Your post would have been received better if it'd been assumption-less and phrased along the lines of "How available are fresh foods and basic ingredients outside of urban areas?"
MrLongWalk@reddit
No, but your assumption that that's all we have is.
o93mink@reddit
TikTok
JimBones31@reddit
Ahh, sensationalism
o93mink@reddit
Propaganda*
TheBimpo@reddit
The gas station or convenience store has a vinyl sticker or the word groceries painted on the wall or on the window, so they walk in and see the convenience items there and assert themselves: “Wow this is what their grocery stores are like, my preconceived notions have been confirmed.”
At least this person had the thought to not be completely presumptuous and asked about what else they might find. But the automatic assumption that supermarkets only have cinnamon sugar oatmeal and would not have dried beans or other staples, I just don’t understand.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
I'm a bit amused by listing baked beans as a processed (i.e. "bad") food. Of course, they technically have been processed, but not in the modern "processed food" context of being stripped of nutritional value while being infused with chemicals and unnatural ingredients. Some brands can indeed be unnecessarily high in salt and sugar, but baked beans are generally regarded as a healthy food that doesn't need to be avoided, just used as no more than a portion of one's diet. Other canned beans are even healthier. Of course, they can be critiqued as not being "fresh," but it's extremely rare to have truly fresh beans (even OP's "dried beans" aren't fresh).
TillPsychological351@reddit
I live in a rural Vermont town of less than 2K people, and even our small local country store is always fully stocked with fruits and vegetables, some of which are supplied by local farms and their greenhouses even in the winter. If I want a larger grocery store, the nearby town of 7K, about 20 minutes away, has two standard US-sized grocery stores.
The_Real_Scrotus@reddit
My parents live in a small town in rural Ohio. Maybe 5,000 people. I go shopping at their grocery store relatively often and it has pretty much any kind of whole unprocessed food you'd want. The only exceptions are foods that aren't commonly used by the people living there. You aren't likely to find fresh lemongrass or taro root, but you can generally find the types of whole foods that Americans eat regularly.
Positive-Avocado-881@reddit
A typical American grocery store has a produce section that’s bigger than a lot of European stores.
AnalogNightsFM@reddit
Did you know that most foods you eat have been processed?
It’s defined as:
So, this would include cheese, milk, and flour, even unbleached flour.
biancanevenc@reddit
Not only does every grocery store have a variety of fresh, organic, gluten-free, and kosher products, but there are delivery services that will bring your groceries to you if you do not live near the store. And most people who live in rural areas are used to driving some distance to get things. It's one of the trade-offs of living in paradise.
Curmudgy@reddit
That's one of those "technically true is the worst kind of true" statements. Sure, nearly all fresh produce is kosher. And there are plenty of widely sold packaged products that are certified kosher, such as Heinz ketchup, many cream cheeses, most canned tuna, etc. It may even be possible to find Hebrew National franks widely available (but I wouldn't bet on it being universal).
But it simply isn't possible to find raw kosher meat in the overwhelming majority of supermarkets. I'm lucky that Trader Joe's carries kosher chicken, but the Market Basket and the Stop and Shop closest to me have none (though there are others in those chains that do). Get further away from the urban areas with Jewish populations, and you'd be hard pressed to find kosher meats at all.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Such items would be available at every single supermarket.
Pure_water_87@reddit
You’ll find those items you listed in every supermarket in America. As someone else mentioned, there are some people who live in extremely rural areas that may not have a proper supermarket near them, but if it’s a proper supermarket they’ll have all of those items. The thing about Americans is that we like having options. So yes, if I go to my local Wegmans you’ll find cinnamon oatmeal and fruity pebbles, but you’ll also find fresh fruit and veggies, dried beans, gluten free items, organic products, etc.
TheBimpo@reddit
In many rural areas without supermarkets, there are other sources for all of that stuff. General stores, farmer's markets, co-ops, creameries, butcher shops, etc. The tourist zooming through town or the person scanning Google Maps isn't going to find this stuff or be aware of it.
Down on Jennings Road there's a huge vegetable stand where 10 different farmers bring their stuff every morning, all summer and autumn long...local, fresh, and seasonal produce. But they only take cash and they have no website. It's just tables and canopies set up and where lots of people get fresh food for months at a time. This kind of stuff is super normal in rural America.
AppState1981@reddit
It's within 30 minutes.
E0H1PPU5@reddit
Unless you are in a food desert which are typically in very densely populated urban areas, every grocery store will have these items.
enstillhet@reddit
I just want to point out that there are rural food deserts as well. Food deserts are not only in populated urban areas.
E0H1PPU5@reddit
You’re right, I’m used to most rural folks having access to reliable transportation to get to grocery stores but that isn’t always the case.
enstillhet@reddit
I mean, I have access to transportation but there are a lot of poor and elderly people around me who do not. Most of the area where I live is a rural food desert. Being one of the poorest counties in Maine doesn't help. We have a grocery store in my town (which has 2,000 people and is the biggest nearby, and the store is small and limited) and to go to anything the size and variety the average American would consider a grocery store is a 30 minute drive - a bit over 20 miles. But functionally, for someone who lives outside of a short radius of the store, if they're old or carless, whether it's 2 miles, 5 miles, or 25 miles doesn't make a functional difference.
E0H1PPU5@reddit
You’re 100% correct. I didn’t check my car privilege. I live in NJ and the closest proper grocery store to me is only 10 minutes by car….but it’s a 3 hour walk and almost 1.5 hours via public transportation.
enstillhet@reddit
Yeah, I am thankful to have reliable transportation now. There is no such thing as public transportation in rural Maine.
JimBones31@reddit
My wife worked for SNAP in Waldo county for a while. Her work stories taught me that there's a lot of Mainers that won't accept help from SNAP because they think others deserve it more, and there's also a lot that simply don't know of the programs available to them.
enstillhet@reddit
Yep, and I'm in Waldo County. A lot of people aren't aware, and a lot think automatically they couldn't possibly qualify - they aren't that bad off. When, in reality, they would qualify for programs. At least I know WaldoCAP does give rides to folks in their vans to get them to things like appointments but I'm not sure about to stores.
The funny thing about Waldo county is for people only familiar with places like Lincolnville and Belfast, they can't imagine that we're one of the poorer counties. But come inland to Jackson and see what that looks like, or Freedom, or Thorndike. It's a whole different situation than the more affluent towns on the ocean (which aren't even that affluent excepting the summer home folks and tourists).
JimBones31@reddit
Oh for sure. And even in Belfast, take a few turns away from the center and you're surrounded by mobile homes. Which is a real stinker, because as you've said, for those folks to get to Hannaford they gotta do some dangerous walking.
enstillhet@reddit
Yeah for sure. I see people walking on the entrance ramps to route 1 and 3 there in Belfast, and crossing busy highways, etc. to cut over towards Renys, etc.
JimBones31@reddit
And now they've hidden Bell the Cat in that business park!
enstillhet@reddit
I know! Probably better location and building for them, but I can't imagine moving out of the visible high traffic area is helping them? I don't know though.
JimBones31@reddit
Beats me!
Have a good day!
enstillhet@reddit
You too!
JimBones31@reddit
I know at least in Maine there are a lot of programs like "help yourself shelves" and community gardens in many of the rural villages that don't have a supermarket.
Throwawaydontgoaway8@reddit
Food deserts affect rural areas just as much as urban areas. Drive around the thumb of Michigan. They farm millions of tons of produce a year, the only grocery store within 15 miles of any given town there is a dollar general with no produce
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
We don't allow unprocessed food in any areas outside of California.
IsItBrieUrLookingFor@reddit
Every grocery store will have these unprocessed or minimally processed food stuffs. Even big box retailers like Target and Walmart will have these items.
However, most gas stations, convenience stores, and dollar stores will also have a grocery section, but they will be mostly, if not entirely, composed of highly processed groceries.
It then becomes an issue of "food deserts," a term essentially meaning that the majority of residents of an area do not have a proper grocery store readily accessible to them. It happens both in dense urban centers and remote areas because for one reason or another it isn't deemed a profitable area. When in a food desert people resort to long commutes for a grocery store, delivery (assuming it is a serviced area), or convenience/dollar stores. And convenience/dollar stores end up providing a lot of groceries as a result.
AlaskanBiologist@reddit
Do you think we don't eat that stuff? I can literally drive about 10 minutes to my house to 7 different grocery stores.
TheBimpo@reddit
I live in a rural area of Michigan. Most of the towns around here have less than 1000 people.
That small town supermarket will have rolled old-fashioned Oats about two shelves below the cinnamon sugar variety. I find it strange that you assume that only the highly sugary version is available. I bought walnuts, pistachios, 15 bean super mix, and a variety of fresh produce at that small town supermarket just a couple days ago.
It seems like it is overwhelmingly common for people that ask these sorts of questions about our grocery stores to be confusing gas stations and convenience stores to be our main or only outlets for food.
We have supermarkets, even in small towns. The vast majority of people do not buy “groceries” at the gas station that happens to have a vinyl sticker on the window that says “groceries”.
My local small town grocery stores all have in-house bakeries that bake bread in many varieties every day. Whole week, pumpernickel, rye, French loaves, etc. They don’t just have Wonder bread. They can do everything from a wedding cake to donuts on the weekend to Irish soda bread.
Besides the supermarkets, there are a variety of other food options.
During the summer and fall, farmers markets are held both in towns and in rural locations. You can find everything from local honey to pasture raised meats to a variety of local vegetables and fruits.
It’s extremely common to see a roadside stand in front of somebody’s farm or house. You can find tomatoes, zucchinis, squash, potatoes, maple syrup that they distilled in their sugar shack, flowers, etc.
The Amish community has a variety of food outlets. There are a couple of roadside stands where you can find baked goods, they also have “creameries” that initially began as an outlet for their dairy goods, but most of them have grown to offer a fairly wide variety of foods. Everything from farm grown vegetables to deli sandwiches and soups for convenience. So you can get milk, yogurt, cheese, etc., directly from the farmers.
It’s also commonplace for neighbors and coworkers to share in the bounty of the foods that they either grew, hunted, or forged. Mushrooms, berries, turkey, venison, fish, apples, etc.
We do have a Walmart that is central to the county and serves people within about a one hour driving radius. I’m not sure if you are familiar with their stores, but you can get basically anything there that you could get in the city. Kombucha, kimchi, organic sprouts, dragonfruit, 2 dozen varieties of apples, etc.
There are areas of the country that are underserved in terms of food options, but the visitor or person just searching around on the Internet is probably not going to be see of all of the sources for food that locals are aware of. At the corner of Highway 33 and County Road 24 there is a farm stand that has the best tomatoes, you’re not going to see that on Google maps.
It’s just really strange that the assumption is that we only have boxed convenience oatmeal, that despite having massive supermarkets, they are only full of processed foods.
PineapplePza766@reddit
Not too common in rural areas if Walmart or dollar general doesn’t have it you’re not going to get it. Some people grow gardens and such and you’re more likely to see small under the table farmer’s markets in really rural areas or know a guy who knows a guy. It’s why Farmers markets are so expensive because they are still heavily regulated by the government.
Mountain_Air1544@reddit
Most Walmarts will have the majority of that stuff
Zappagrrl02@reddit
Those are pretty common ingredients. The more rural grocery stores don’t have as wide a variety of produce as ones in larger towns or cities, but they have all the basics.
Kingsolomanhere@reddit
I live in a town of 4500 people with 4 more of that size or slightly larger. We have a large Kroger and Walmart that's within 2 miles for 3 of those towns. You can find just about anything you mention with ease, with an even better supply of fresh produce during the summer. My favorite farm market ( it's an actual farm with their market in a huge 120 year old barn) that raises sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, potatoes, green beans, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, beets, assorted herbs, and assorted berries. On an average summer day after July 4th they might sell 300 dozen ears of corn or more until late September.
Current_Poster@reddit
Pretty much every supermarket will have at least SOME fresh produce. Even crappy ones. Corner stores won't (we have had this whole thing where people mistake corner stores for supermarkets.). Oats (as in the rolled-oats kind of thing), dried beans, etc are common as well.
I'm talking a town of about 5,000 to 9,000 in year round population, though I live in NYC now (no neighborhood I've ever lived in here didn't have the things you asked, within reasonable distance.)
ThirteenOnline@reddit
It is very easy in fact it's harder to find that in dense inner city urban areas
_bibliofille@reddit
I live in an area with a population density of 46.36 people per square mile and we only have one grocery store in the entire county. It is amply stocked with a great affordable variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, organic and other options.
For comparison New York City's population density is 29,302.66 people per square mile. My store now has more variety than the nearest option to me when I lived there.