Brits nip to the shop to buy milk. What do Americans buy?

[Fordian]

As in, we nip down the local Tesco metro to buy milk, bread, wine or beer.

What would an American nip down to buy?

And how far away is if?

Mine's a 2 minute drive.

@Carrieonmywaywardsun -
We don't sell machetes and acid in our grocery stores, but they sell guns and wonder why kids get shot at their desks in schools?
No stores of any kind anywhere near me sell guns. That includes Walmart.

I lived through an American autumn/winter one year and was fascinated by their shops. There was no such thing as 'popping', you had to plan a 30 minute shopping trip even just for milk and tea bags. Their produce was crappy though so it required 3 shops and a farmer's market to get some decent vegetables that tasted right. Petrol stations had snacks and occasionally little cartons of milk but even they were a good 10-15 minute drive away.
No good produce?
In any of the shops?
Across the entire US?

We don't sell machetes and acid in our grocery stores, but they sell guns and wonder why kids get shot at their desks in schools?

Italics fail there..

I hear the produce complaint a lot, and I admit that some chains are really grim, but there's plenty of tasteless mediocre produce in UK supermarkets. In every country it comes down to learning how to shop and what's good. In most developed countries they will truck in produce to fill in seasons. January tomatoes are going to be disappointing.

it is worth pointing out that Walmart's origins were as a discount department store, often in rural locations. Grocery was an add-on. To this day their stores are more than just a hypermarket. When you think of Walmart as being THE store in a rural town, selling guns makes more sense. You can't buy guns in Safeway or Kroger. On the other hand, Walmart in Canada sells ammunition.

When we dropped DS off at university we went to the nearest (vast) Walmart in his college town in the cornfields and bought all sorts of dorm supplies there. I realised I had a flattish tyre that wouldn't get me back home again, and got it replaced in the automotive department while DS shopped for bedsheets, towels, hangers, a rug for the floor, paper, pens, various cords, wool socks, gloves, a box fan, and snacks. The customers in the store that day were farm families loading up multiple trollies with what looked like a month's worth of food and their children's school supplies, and families from all over the world looking for dorm stuff and snack foods. Mini fridges, electric kettles, and smaller microwaves were in almost every second trolley. There was an interesting mix of vehicles in the car park.

It's a fact that guns are sold in Walmart, just because the one near you doesn't sell them doesn't make your country's gun crime any better!

I'm not sure where I stated that I'd visited every shop across the US to test their produce, but I didn't. The shops I did try had appalling fruit and veg quality- tasteless and very watery. Their bread and cupboard essentials were all sweeter and/or saltier than UK food and the meat was not great quality. Hence why I shopped around. Local grown fruit and veg sold at the roadside was the best quality, probably because of the lack of additives/chemicals

I'm in the UK and do miss not having a corner shop where we live now. It's a 20 minute walk to the nearest convenience store and we rarely get things from there as there's a bigger Co-op two minutes further on.

Someone upthread has mentioned the licensing laws in Pennsylvania and I remember trying to find the liquor store in Philadelphia when we were on holiday there. We were going to a BYOB restaurant for dinner. The other odd thing in Philadelphia was that there were a limited number of booze licences for restaurants so places waited for one to become available when it was given up or for a place with one to go bust.

But of a culture shock finding you can't just buy wine in the supermarket everywhere in the US after the UK and living in Spain.

The USA can't be treated as one block for things like licensing laws.
All of my local USA supermarkets sell wine. My local Whole Foods has two bars, Mariano's has a wine bar with jazz piano.
It is a much "wetter" environment than anywhere I have ever lived in the UK.

@calmlakes As a Brit living in a Southern US State I often feel like an alcoholic compared with my local friends but the reality is that alcohol is available in many more types of places here than it ever was growing up in England!
My local Kroger and Whole Foods both have wine bars, even Restoration Hardware now has a huge (and lovely!) wine bar in the middle.
I think there is more drinking behind closed doors here than people let on!!!

The other odd thing in Philadelphia was that there were a limited number of booze licences for restaurants so places waited for one to become available when it was given up or for a place with one to go bust.

Yes, I know in some places it's a real estate selling point that a building comes with a liquor license -- sometimes the license itself is worth more than the premises!

Living in Chicago drinking goes on everywhere from the streets onwards.
There is sadly still a shocking drink drive culture here.
Also it is perfectly usual to have a bar in your house, probably in the basement.
Even as a west coast Scot I don't feel particularly heavy drinking here.

On TV they seem to pop out for OJ

Or ice

I don't know about now, but when I lived in Australia 20yrs ago drink driving in country towns was absolutely normal.
I didn't drive at all then, didn't until I was in my 30's.

@knitnerd90
Yeah, I still can’t think of Walmart as a grocery store. You can get your oil changed and buy tires there. I almost never go in one, but I know in many rural places it’s the only place to shop.

Also it is perfectly usual to have a bar in your house, probably in the basement.

Funny, there was a thread on MN just a day or so ago on the awfulness of bars people are putting up in their back gardens in the UK.

I didn't see any accompanying drunk tanks where guests could sleep it off before heading home.

Beer, bread, snacks…more beer