![[meme] American grocery shopping.](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/4fc628c5-c193-436c-9664-6c37850e4bf9.jpeg){kind=link}
Honestly, it just feels like a matter of time before we’re gonna see tractor sized vehicles around in cities and people are still gonna say they NEED them for groceries. Yet when I actually visited America and we went grocery shopping with a pickup the size of my room back home, I got the experience of having shopping bags on my lap in the passage seat for the first time ever. Like where else you gonna put it? The trunk? The back seats??? Oh you jokester! There’s like legit no space inside these things.
The Americans I visited live in Indiana. Tho it’s less about them actually buying a lot (about a week’s worth), but rather that when talking about cars and how ridiculously huge their’s is, they always say that they need it for hauling and groceries. Meanwhile the rest of the world doesn’t experience this problem.
And on top of that you can’t put anything into the trunk (or bed I suppose…) and the back seats are just barely spacious enough to fit a rifle case. So if you have around 6-8 bags of stuff, you’re gonna put some into the passenger seat. It’s especially funny, because even my mom’s tiny 3rd gen Clio fits more inside. Picking me up from the airport with barely space for my luggage was another fun one. But they insist on buying these expensive awkward vehicles.
Ah, I see. Well, let me say this: seeing a grocery store parking lot filled with giganti-merican vehicles is always obnoxious.
But why couldn’t you use the truck bed?? It’s like the one time they could have actually put it to use! You’d think they’d be all about it. Like guys (and it’s always guys) that carry a pocket knife and someone actually needs a knife for once. They practically cry they’re so happy.
There wasn’t really a good way to secure things back there. At least not something small and squishy like a grocery bag. Besides, the bed is so high up and huge, it’s awkward putting anything up there anyways. The one time we actually hauled something, a Gokart, it was a massive pain getting that thing up there. It’s too high for a ramp so better get to lifting.
Just for fun I’ve quickly looked online, and there actually exist accessories that make the bed smaller with little boxes for such things. Just buy a roof and it’s almost as convenient as a regular car xD
My favorite is this one tho, someone had enough brains to develop an actual trunk (if a bit awkward to reach and a bit small) but understood the need for a much larger bed for the fragile ego xD
Yeah, the huge trucks and suburbans are pretty insane. I’m American and drive a small-ish SUV (2023 RAV4 Hybrid) and we fill the extra cargo space (and passenger seats) all the time. Groceries can do it (not all the time though), especially if making one of our (infrequent) runs to Costco to restock on stuff that’s a lot cheaper/more useful to buy in bulk. The other day I used the cargo space to transport a large (6 ft/1.8m) folding table and 8 folding chairs for my son’s birthday party. And speaking of kids: car seats, strollers, diaper bags, etc. need a fair bit of room.
Yesterday I drove behind a new generation RAV4 and was shocked at how big it was. I remembered them as smaller SUVs.
Looking at carsized.com the 2005 gen definitely looks lighter and sportier and smaller than the current 2019 fat slob.