Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:28:38 JST Adrianna Tan

   Someone asked why Costco / warehouse type shops never survived in Singapore and the answers were:

   - homes are too small to buy in bulk
   - people don’t drive so can’t carry more than a few items
   - you can buy almost everything easily with a ten min walk from your house anywhere so why would you hoard anything

   Mostly true! I think the last point is something I feel quite strongly, access and abundance of groceries at all times in all places, due to density and transit

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:32:09 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     On my way home from school (in a bus or train) I would pass at least three major supermarkets, several wet markets, hundreds of food shops, all in the 0.5 - 1 mile last mile from bus stop / train station to home

     So American urban planning is very weird to me

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Petrilli (petrillic@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:33:12 JST Chris Petrilli

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte but where is your huge yard that nobody is using for anything productive?

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:34:56 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     People are EXTREMELY consumerist, but somehow warehouse type places never lasted long.

     Folks will go shopping for tents and backpacks at Decathlon at 2 in the morning tho. I know I did.

     I don’t know if I can do the insomniac city life anymore

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:41:21 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Alistair K

     @libroraptor oh yeah I cant imagine Singaporeans going for the convenience foods at all or large canned items. It’s just not a thing at all. That said they do love a deal and costco in big west coast cities with big Asian populations would absolutely be huge with that type of inventory we prefer

   • Embed this notice
     Alistair K (libroraptor@mastodon.nz)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:41:22 JST Alistair K

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte Much of Europe's nice in the same way. Even people with huge houses generally don't binge-shop from what I could tell. And why would you when your culture is about _fresh_ food to dine on rather than _impressive_ food to fawn over and feed on?

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:42:45 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     However, Costco in SF and Seattle has started selling old Chinese people food items like really high quality abalone so

     If they did that in Singapore the place would be run over by old people for sure

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:52:50 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Alistair K

     @libroraptor one day someone’s children will inherit my Costco aluminum foil.

   • Embed this notice
     Alistair K (libroraptor@mastodon.nz)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jul-2026 07:52:51 JST Alistair K

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I used to shop occasionally at Costco but didn't like it. Found BJs better for range but we didn't binge-shop, and always pined for things like a freshly caught fish. Fresh fish is very much a foreign food in the areas where we lived. But there was one Chinese fishmonger in a crappy neighbourhood of New Haven in Connecticut. We used to walk over to his shop every week or two. Most of the stock was conspicuously stale, and his market was fine with it. He'd always tell us which ones were fresh in the sense that we like, versus fresh in the sense that most of his customers like.

     We had a Japanese friend who wouldn't touch fish at all after his first taste of sushi in the area. "It tastes old, like it was caught yesterday," he said.