I’m usually not a fan of overgeneralizing an entire continent, but … it’s the trut’!
This is how I shop — but it’s what I grew up with. I realize, of course, that not everyone enjoys the privilege to leisurely shop every day.
For the majority of folks who are trying to feed a family & working 2-3 jobs to do so, this is likely not a feasible option.
Anyone who has visited a supermarket in Europe will know how popular they are with folk doing the “big shop for the week”. In many situations, including that near my home, the popularity of supermarkets has destroyed the small local shops.
I lived in this urban village as a child, moving away in adulthood but coming back 40 years ago. When I was a child, my mother would do her shopping almost entirely in the village. There were two butchers, a fishmonger, three greengrocers, two bakers and a grocers that stocked packet and tinned products, things like toilet paper and would also slice bacon, ham, etc to order. All have now gone, except for one butchers.
Hmmm. While we also peruse supermarkets in the fatherland, there’s still plenty of butchers, bakers, fishmongers, cheesemongers and, of course, weekly farmers markets in Berlin, all of which are hugely popular.
I rarely shop for more than a couple of days in advance, which is why that weekly menu planning thread is completely lost on me. I have no idea what I may want to eat on Friday or Saturday today 
IMO, shopping the “European” way is only advantageous when you can walk to the grocery store/specialty shops. Sadly, that is really only possible in a few select cities in America. When we lived in Queens, this is exactly how I shopped - I had several grocery stores and countless specialty food stores available to me within a 3-4 block radius. Now that I moved to the 'burbs, the closest grocery store is several miles away - all food shopping requires a car trip. I try to minimize shopping trips to minimize the environmental impact of driving, so a weekly shop (or even every 10 days if I can swing it produce-wise) is preferable.
Even smaller, “walkable” places in the USA are not really equipped for this type of shopping. Dedicated butchers/cheesemongers just don’t exist. I often go to the village of Hastings on Hudson for groceries, which has a cute, walkable downtown. I can park at the grocery store and walk to other shops, but there is no butcher, cheesemonger, green grocer, etc. - just a couple of mediocre bakeries. Typically I end up walking to the liquor store, bank, post office and/or dry cleaner, and doing all of my food shopping at the grocery store.
You make a valid point. Here in the boonz it’s almost impossible to shop / get anywhere without taking the car.
A privileged fantasy for city dwellers with enough time on their hands, then 
I experienced the same growing up in what would have been called a “streetcar suburb” in the U.S. Loved that! When my family moved further out from the city though, weekly shopping became the rule. We were a one-car household and stores weren’t walkable.
As an adult, I actually shop less frequently now than we ever have. That is mostly because of signing up for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) produce shares that take us from about mid-June to mid-December. Weekly pickup for those shares. Big shops at the grocery store are every other week. Fish and meat we try to source locally, so usually we get a few items at a time I use to stock the freezer. Miscellaneous runs to a farmer’s market, Asian stores, Trader Joe’s, specialty shops as opportunity or need arises.
Fewer store visits are good at holding the line on our budget, but I freely admit it is a lot of work for me. So. Many. Vegetables. I also imagine that our shopping regimen would be tough for those with growing kids who have bigger appetites than a household of two aging adults.
Instacart? Or its many other brethren?
“Trend”? I think they mean “method”.
We have butchers’ shops, cheesemongers, bakeries, fishmongers etc in our small town (and luckily they are near each other). And then there are neighbourhood markets on certain days of the week. Of course supermarkets and smaller (green) grocers (yeah, I get asked sometimes if I have electricity/live under a rock). On top of all these possibilities we still bike to the countryside to buy vegetables, eggs or meats etc directly from farmers or small producers. Takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours biking to these villages so they are more like fun biking trips with some shopping on the side.
The partner, who works from home, makes 3 little shopping trips during the week. We go to the Saturday outdoor market together. Takes 10 minutes on the bicycle to reach the shopping area in my small town and also the same place where my municipal weekly market is located. The bigger Saturday market is in a big city half an hour cycling each way.
My house is small, my kitchen is tiny, my fridge is small. Half the space in my freezer is for breads bought from a countryside bakery. Not much room in freezer or cupboards for the never-ending multi-buy sales that encourage consumerism. I cook my food almost every single day. Oh yeah, our supermarkets are much smaller here.
I interrupted my reading of this thread because I found this so stunning! When I grew up in what my daughter calls “deep Queens” it was the burbs, at least to my family from Brooklyn! In the sixties we could walk to grocery stores, butchers, and other businesses that were long gone by the eighties. It was intriguing to read a recent story about Royal Farms. I think it was Royal Farms. Something about grocery chains making it difficult for independents.
Okay; back to the thread.
ETA; finished the linked article which ended thusly; saying who would benefit from this “trend”
1). People with small kitchens, or who are cooking for only one or two people,
2).This shopping strategy can also be helpful for those on a budget, especially if you have a small household and don’t need to buy any items in bulk.
Oh!
Before I read the article I was remembering that I also read another “European ( purposely in quotes because I am not sure who it applies to) trend” was eating out regularly at the walkable establishments.
There is a store in my somewhat rural burbs that I can walk to, is large, but ticks off some specialty market boxes, and seems to be thriving! It’s a Mexican market and I am so happy for them.
Haha, as a former Sunnysider there are definitely parts of Queens I would refer to as the 'burbs as well - basically anything east of Jackson Heights! 
60+ years later and you guys have finally made sense of this song for this boy from Kansas!
Here in the PA burbs, I shop every couple of days (no big shops) via car. A butcher, pick up my CSA, a big weekly farmers market and innumerable farm stands, and the groc store for staples like olive oil and flour. I love food shopping so I don’t mind.
I guess they call it a trend because they just figured it out. In any case, how Europeans shop isn’t just European, much of the world shops that way because of tradition, small living quarters and refrigeration being a relatively new invention……and smaller kitchen appliances. Also historically how villages, town centers and urban design evolved (world wide) is much different from the US, where there’s vast rural areas and suburbs, and the reliance on dominance of supermarkets and cars….hence you drive to the store and load up so you don’t have to go again or a while, which is completely practical and if you have a large frig, doable. I grew up in a suburb and that was reality.
Of course as mentioned above like in Queens, there are places in the US where small daily shopping is doable and makes sense. Much of San Francisco operates like this, walk a few blocks to a shopping district and you’ll find produce and other groceries run by families and mom and pops. I shopped like that in SF and my relatives all did this but we’d also drive to a supermarket for some stuff like pantry stables or dry goods. I now live within walking distance to Oakland Chinatown and I can do this, on a daily basis and it’s not a luxury, few if any luxury items. or pleasure shopping….but it is fresh. Traditionally this is how people shop in Asia and much of the world….buy it the day you cook and eat it, not just Europeans. And often it was about freshness, not luxury or leisure. Other Ethnic neighborhoods like Fruitvale still operate like this.
So now I hybrid it. Get fresh produce and some fish or meat within walking distance but also go to Costco for pantry items and bulk to. save on some things.
After reading the article, I see that this is the way I usually shop. Several trips a week to the fishmonger, the cheese shop, the greengrocer. I do like to keep a few portions of meat, from our independent supermarket, in the freezer and build on it with fresh produce. I was in a huge mainstream supermarket recently for the first time in years, and it was very disorienting.
ETA: I do have to drive to the stores. A new greengrocer is opening a couple of blocks away, though.
Small towns!
The city of 20,000 I live in has a Market of Choice, a Co-op,
an Albertsons and a Safeway which used to be competitors but now are the same store on opposite ends of town, and our crown jewel, ShopNKart, a real live independent grocery store which is Winco sized but mostly organic.
They’ll stock local and regional stuff that the chains won’t touch. Very NW food oriented. Only bad thing is they don’t have a deli.
We also have an organic local growers market from March through Thanksgiving. I along with many here don’t drive but we do have a bus. Lots of us shop every day or two because our town is centered around theater and food.
I had no idea we were so European!
If we need the big box stores we can always head north to Medford and enviorns to hit Costco, Grocery Outlet, Trader Joe’s or other “big city” treats. Medford is about 100,000 and our valley has about 300,000 or so. Lots of agriculture, fruit, and alcohol production.
This thread makes me grateful for what we take as everyday life.
We are very lucky indeed.
We’re the county that voted to ban GMOs.
Got overturned by the state as unenforceable but we were proud of our efforts.
I just don’t have the energy to do a shopping trip every couple of days. I wish I did. I was using Instacart/Amazon Fresh/Whole Foods delivery for a while, but the fees and tip add up (also, the number of shoppers who “can’t find” my esoteric item that I know is there but they can’t be arsed to look for it). So, right now we’re usually doing a big shop for seltzer, BF’s Coke Zero, produce and dairy, and assorted sundries on Saturday. The bulk of our protein is typically from our seafood and fish subscription (Wulf’s, $150/monthly for 7 lbs, plus any add-ons) or dried beans (supermarket and occasional Rancho Gordo). I menu plan, but don’t always get to everything I plan (so, I mostly lurk in that thread). BF is pretty great about grabbing delivery on the nights I am too wiped out to cook (happens more often than I’d like). I occasionally get meats from Snake River Farms directly, Fossil Farms, or US Wellness Meats, but we are mostly pesc-y.
Off topic, but does your BF drink only Coke Zero?
Does he refuse to drink Diet Coke?
I heard a long discussion on morning drive radio about Zero being the preferred drink of men who refuse to drink diet soda. One guy contended that they were pretty much the same while another guy said no no much different. I don’t drink pop anymore. I’m pretty much in Nick and Nora mode these days. Alcohol coffee and milk are the only things that pass my lips.
I respect your BFs’s expertise.
He was Team Diet Coke (as was I) for a very long time. Then Coke Zero happened. I think it does taste a lot more like Coke Classic than Diet Coke does - which is why he likes it now over Diet Coke. For myself, I find most cola products too sweet at this point (especially my former love, Diet Coke). So, I tend to do flavored seltzers from Polar now.
