From Car to Cart

We don’t have a car.  Cars are wildly expensive here (easily $1500 USD+ per month to lease plus gas which is about $6 USD per gallon here), but we could have leased one and made it work if we wanted to- we simply decided we’d rather try to take advantage of the famed public transportation in Singapore (and there was no way in hell I was planning to take up driving on the left side of the road on the crazy streets of Singapore). 

The public transportation has lived up to my expectations so far- the MRT is easy, clean and reliable, (admittedly I can’t speak for the bus system yet but I hear it’s great) and the taxis are abundant and efficient.  There is even an app that you download (see screen shot) to book a cab that blows my mind in its efficiency.  It automatically detects your location (a really nice feature when you are new to a city and usually have no idea where you are!) and tells you how long it will take for a cab to come to your door- you can even track the taxi’s progress en route to your location via GPS!  If you change your mind and want to cancel, you can do it with a tap of a button- amazing.   

But beyond taking advantage of public transportation for the sake of it, truth be told, we are also enjoying the idea of proving to ourselves that we can shed our suburban American lifestyle and become true urbanites by not relying on a car.  It has only been two weeks, but thus far, I have two challenges with this.  #1, I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable having my 2 year old ride around in a taxi without a carseat.  We are investigating portable carseats- not ideal, but better than nothing. Today it was pouring rain and I was nervous the entire ride, trying to plan my reaction if god forbid we got into an accident.  

And #2 issue with the no car situation is grocery shopping.  The good thing is that there is a Cold Storage grocery store about a third of a mile from our home… but there are a few catches to what otherwise sounds like a really convenient situation. 

1.       First the obvious- it is 90+ degrees here and humid (and/or raining).  So any journey is a bit of cardiovascular workout.    But that’s fine- I can simply tell myself this is my workout, and obviously we knew it would be hot when we decided to move to Singapore! 
2.      Second, to walk there, you have to go down a path with a bunch of brick steps… and then of course to come back, you have to go UP a path with a bunch of brick steps.  Hmmm… with no car, Singaporeans transport groceries in these cute little wheeled carts (ours is from Ikea of course).  Wheels + stairs is not really a great mix (nevermind if you have a baby stroller too!)  Avery is getting really good at the stairs.
3.       But most importantly…This cute little cart is actually really not big enough (and ours is on the larger side!) for my primal hunter/gatherer instincts of needing to have a many day stockpile of food and supplies!  I am used to buying whatever I want at the grocery store with pretty much no constraints.  We have 70lb bag of dog food for our 25lb dog.  I love Costco!  I love the value size! Now, I find myself prioritizing feverishly with a whole different purchase decision hierarchy (for those brand marketers reading this).  It used to be brand then price… suddenly the size and weight of what I’m buying is a critically important element- and smaller is always better.    

SO, what ends up happening is that we pretty much can only buy enough food for the next 2-3 days.  It’s definitely a great way to be healthy because we can easily keep buying fresh foods, but I am coming face to face with my own weird anxiety about not having enough food (and toilet paper, paper towels, etc.) in the house!  Luckily, this is where having our helper, Jennifer, do the marketing will be an amazing… well, help.  She starts November 1^st though… so until then… it’s the cart on the brick steps… very frequently.