2 Wheeling to the Grocery Store

By: Kendra Davidson | Tags: bakfiets, cargobike, Dutch Bakfiets, dutch bicycle, Dutch Bicycle Canada, dutch bike, Dutch Cargobike, grocery shopping by bike | Comments: 0

Does anyone else seem to live in a grocery store? Back in the day when I didn’t have a child, a dog, after school and weekend pint sized hollow legged extra’s that pop into our house, I went grocery shopping once a week.

So like all parents, that once a week grocery shopping trip turned into 4x a week, because either you run out of something, your nut free packaged food stash for the one friend with allergies has gone and you have to restock, you volunteered to get last minute snacks for the soccer team, your child has changed all his/her taste buds within 24hrs  or you have forgotten something, because well, you are a parent, it happens.

So for these reasons,  including my sanity, I bike to get groceries.

I tried driving, I mean before the bakfiets entered my life, I was trapped driving everywhere, I don’t miss the awkward days taking my toddlers snowsuit off before strapping them into their car seat, then getting to the grocery store, to then have to quickly move to the back seat, unstrap them, and stuff their bodies back into their snowsuit…

The bakfiets, even in winter, made the trip shorter, parking is door to door, less dressing and undressing, and made for a whole lot more fun and laughter. I no longer get stressed out running to get groceries.

4 trips a week, which is 10.4km a week, 16 trips per month at 41.6km per month,  and 192 trips per year at 499.2km per year.  ALL  BY BIKE. It doesn’t sound like a lot, until you add it all up. That is a lot less short trips in a car, and that is only the grocery shopping.

We bike or bakfiets, depending on what we are shopping for, where we are going and how much we are getting.

My Omafiets is always equipped to take on weight, with panniers to the front rack or sometimes I just put the basket on and take it right into the store.

The bakfiets is the true workhorse, while I pedal, there is usually a cookie eating monster in the front chatting about everything and anything. I don’t really miss vacuuming the cookie mess in the car.

I get asked daily why I bike to get groceries.

The simple reason is, biking to run an errand that I have to do multiple times a week has made it more pleasant, less stressful, easier to manage and coordinate, and lets face it, way more fun. When people ask why I bike all the time, its simply my default, if I bike to run my least favourite errands, those errands don’t end up being a pain, they end up being a highlight because I am on a bike. Biking has changed my perception of going grocery shopping, I no longer dread it, now, I like it.