This is what all NYC outerborough shopping is like.

I note it because I think it should be a phenomenon of interest to environmentalists who advocate urban density and mass transit. If you have a car, the further you travel from the city line and mass transit, the more fully stocked the stores are.

It has nothing to do with the store chain, virtually all are this way. For example, I do not even bother going to the Target closest to me in the Bronx and accessible by subway, the shelves are always so empty, if I travel by car to their Westchester county stores, there is like double the merchandise available.

When I need a quantity of household goods, I have found that it is faster and more convenient to get them at the same time I go to East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania (80 miles away) for other reasons. And at significant savings in prices, too. At one strip mall that has several giant stores with loads of merchandise, I can get everything purchased in an hour that would take me days to find and gather in the city from many sources and visits.

When I visit family in Milwaukee, I am virtually always gobsmacked by the fully stocked stores with nobody in them, how you don't have to bump into others when trying to figure out what photo paper is best to get at Office Depot, and that there is so much more variety of photo paper available, all in the right shelf space with labels with prices underneath. And at the Home Depot, there are actually employees there to help you find things and answer questions! Simply amazing!

Solving this problem would mean a lot more deliveries to dense urban centers, I wonder how much that would cancel out the environmental benefits of the density and mass transit? Then you have to throw in that retail rents are always higher in denser areas because of the ability to sell to a captive audience, and prices must be higher to cover those rents.

I also think of something we have talked about before, those mothers struggling on the bus with several small children and bags of groceries. And that they cannot buy all the food for a week in one trip....and how they cannot "shop smart," not without a car.

Edit to add: the central borough of Manhattan is, of course, well stocked with very expensive designer goods, is at the top of the heap internationally on that one. And to be fair, it is also a good place to find cheap stylish shoes or the other clothing and accessory knockoffs if you know your way around it. But cheap groceries, cleaning supplies, toiletries or hardware? Not so much....