From the archives: The big fridge, the big car, and the big grocery store are all part of one economic machine; in a sense, you cannot have one without the other two.
I just went through the experience of living in an AirBnB with a smaller refrigerator--not a dorm fridge, but a shorter and skinnier one than the reasonably standard fridge I'm used to. As someone who cooks and deliberately creates leftovers, some to be eaten that week and some I'd freeze for later, I found it *maddening*. Only one shelf with some height for taller items, little door space for the variety of condiments I keep on hand, a tiny freezer that needed 25% of the space for ice cube trays. Our farmers' market is only open weekends this time of year and I couldn't store a week's worth of vegetables with everything else already in there. Many of the ways I reduce food waste were harder, not easier.
I don't need the Kelvinator Foodarama but I need more space than that.
For years I tried to make the case that small fridges make good cities, that "people who have them are out in their community every day, buy what is seasonal and fresh, buy as much as they need, responding to the marketplace, the baker, vegetable store and neighborhood vendor."
"Responding to the marketplace."
Lloyd, it sounds like consumers are driven by "the marketplace" in your example. That's actually backward.
A successful and independent marketplace serves and is responsible to THE CONSUMERS in our capitalist driven system. When a marketplace is vibrant, it shows that producers are listening to those consumers to provide and serve them correctly.
Capitalism is all about Service. The more that one can serve the needs and wants of others, the more successful you can become.
Grok, don't YOU find it ironic that "certain people" on here espouse the virtues of growing their own food as a way to save money and be self-reliant, of turning monoculture yards of fescue grass into a food forest—but then rails against a larger refrigerator/freezer to store all their produce in, or of saving money by buying in bulk and dividing into meal portions once home?
The epitome of irony is a sustainability advocate whose mantra is "only what's enough" who then openly admits to using his refrigerator freezer **SOLELY** for storing a couple of martini glasses in it. It's no different than the Democrat party saying illegal immigration is a good thing, until all those illegals begin showing up in their deep blue enclaves with all their crime and corruption. Gotta love karma!
In 1948, our family moved from England to Sydney, NSW, Australia for my father's work (I was 6). I recall a Crosley Shelvador fridge with a big V-shaped hopper at the bottom (for cereals) with the compressor etc, behind. Three years later we moved back to England and that fridge served our family home long after I left, so the fridge must have been about 25 years old when it was replaced.
We also had a big Canadian built 1947 Ford 'fordor' sedan, which also went back to Britain and was our family car for many years.
So I have one of those smaller European fridges: Skinny, tall, counter depth, wine rack inside :) . I bought this appliance during the height of COVID, so couldn't go demo it. In the few years that I have had it, a few things stand out: 1. I'm short (5'2"), and I can't reach the top shelf without a stool. Luckily, I can't reach much on most of my top shelves in the kitchen in general, so I do have a rolling stool (like they have at libraries) permanently in my kitchen. 2. While the fridge has (IIRC) approximately 9.5 square feet of storage, which was comparable to an apartment sized fridge here in the US, it's much more difficult to fit things in the fridge due to package sizes/shape & space of the fridge shelving. I find myself at the store comparing sizes of things to other products that I know fit in my fridge. (jars of jam that fit on the door, for example). I have no place inside that would fit a gallon of milk, nor a 2 liter of soda (neither of which I use). However, I can fit 5 bottles of wine on their side. I also have to store jars of applesauce on their side. Same with pyrex storage containers: a 9-cup container of leftovers essentially takes an entire shelf. 3. I have traditionally shopped one day per week (because I transit/walk to the shop, I can't carry more than that in a trip), and I find that the space is enough to do about 10-12 days of food for me. I think that's enough. 4. Perhaps most importantly, the freezer is *just* big enough to hold a frozen pizza. If I weren't someone who lived alone, I would think that these things would be annoying enough to justify having a larger fridge. The only thing that I really miss is an automatic ice maker.
I just went through the experience of living in an AirBnB with a smaller refrigerator--not a dorm fridge, but a shorter and skinnier one than the reasonably standard fridge I'm used to. As someone who cooks and deliberately creates leftovers, some to be eaten that week and some I'd freeze for later, I found it *maddening*. Only one shelf with some height for taller items, little door space for the variety of condiments I keep on hand, a tiny freezer that needed 25% of the space for ice cube trays. Our farmers' market is only open weekends this time of year and I couldn't store a week's worth of vegetables with everything else already in there. Many of the ways I reduce food waste were harder, not easier.
I don't need the Kelvinator Foodarama but I need more space than that.
For years I tried to make the case that small fridges make good cities, that "people who have them are out in their community every day, buy what is seasonal and fresh, buy as much as they need, responding to the marketplace, the baker, vegetable store and neighborhood vendor."
"Responding to the marketplace."
Lloyd, it sounds like consumers are driven by "the marketplace" in your example. That's actually backward.
A successful and independent marketplace serves and is responsible to THE CONSUMERS in our capitalist driven system. When a marketplace is vibrant, it shows that producers are listening to those consumers to provide and serve them correctly.
Capitalism is all about Service. The more that one can serve the needs and wants of others, the more successful you can become.
Grok, don't YOU find it ironic that "certain people" on here espouse the virtues of growing their own food as a way to save money and be self-reliant, of turning monoculture yards of fescue grass into a food forest—but then rails against a larger refrigerator/freezer to store all their produce in, or of saving money by buying in bulk and dividing into meal portions once home?
The epitome of irony is a sustainability advocate whose mantra is "only what's enough" who then openly admits to using his refrigerator freezer **SOLELY** for storing a couple of martini glasses in it. It's no different than the Democrat party saying illegal immigration is a good thing, until all those illegals begin showing up in their deep blue enclaves with all their crime and corruption. Gotta love karma!
In 1948, our family moved from England to Sydney, NSW, Australia for my father's work (I was 6). I recall a Crosley Shelvador fridge with a big V-shaped hopper at the bottom (for cereals) with the compressor etc, behind. Three years later we moved back to England and that fridge served our family home long after I left, so the fridge must have been about 25 years old when it was replaced.
We also had a big Canadian built 1947 Ford 'fordor' sedan, which also went back to Britain and was our family car for many years.
So I have one of those smaller European fridges: Skinny, tall, counter depth, wine rack inside :) . I bought this appliance during the height of COVID, so couldn't go demo it. In the few years that I have had it, a few things stand out: 1. I'm short (5'2"), and I can't reach the top shelf without a stool. Luckily, I can't reach much on most of my top shelves in the kitchen in general, so I do have a rolling stool (like they have at libraries) permanently in my kitchen. 2. While the fridge has (IIRC) approximately 9.5 square feet of storage, which was comparable to an apartment sized fridge here in the US, it's much more difficult to fit things in the fridge due to package sizes/shape & space of the fridge shelving. I find myself at the store comparing sizes of things to other products that I know fit in my fridge. (jars of jam that fit on the door, for example). I have no place inside that would fit a gallon of milk, nor a 2 liter of soda (neither of which I use). However, I can fit 5 bottles of wine on their side. I also have to store jars of applesauce on their side. Same with pyrex storage containers: a 9-cup container of leftovers essentially takes an entire shelf. 3. I have traditionally shopped one day per week (because I transit/walk to the shop, I can't carry more than that in a trip), and I find that the space is enough to do about 10-12 days of food for me. I think that's enough. 4. Perhaps most importantly, the freezer is *just* big enough to hold a frozen pizza. If I weren't someone who lived alone, I would think that these things would be annoying enough to justify having a larger fridge. The only thing that I really miss is an automatic ice maker.