Ever since moving to Detroit, most of my conversations with new inquirers about my living arrangements begin like this…

“So where do you live?”
“Downtown Detroit”
“Oh…you do? But like, where do you go grocery shopping and stuff?”

…as if Detroit is this alien land where normal things don’t exist.

Detroit has grocery stores. While they aren’t the huge department sized stores like Kroger or Meijer that many are used to, they do exist.  Honey Bee Market, Ye Olde Butcher shop, Lafayette Foods, are all places within a 5 minute drive that have great variety.  I mean, even the 24 hour CVS has a ton of random items you might need if you find yourself in a pickle on a Sunday night (trust me, 9:30pm is not the best time to find out you urgently need a plunger).

It seems the problem many focus on is the distance one has to travel to get groceries.  Yes, it’s not feasible in certain areas of the city and it can obviously be improved upon (it is a huge problem for some), but the distance I have to travel really isn’t the problem for me.  Most people in Northern Michigan have to travel twice as far as I do! The problem is using grocery shopping as an excuse to consider Detroit a inadequate place to live.

Let’s be honest, grocery shopping takes time no matter what. Whether in the city of Detroit or the suburbs of Troy, it still takes time if you aren’t prepared and don’t know what you want to buy.  City life all across the US takes a certain level of prioritizing and organizing in order to make it work, and Detroit is no exception.  I encourage anyone to come down and see the amazing stores we do have here in the city, to get a chance to see that living in downtown Detroit is actually pretty cool, and that you’ll be well-fed!