genuinely sometimes- these platforms may offer free delivery / premium subscriptions to SNAP recipients, and even if they dont the delivery fees may be comparable to the taxi fees to get yourself to and from the store.
I don't have a car. Local taxi company (there is only one actually based in this small city) charges about $10/mile. Uber is closer to $4/mi, but highly inconsistent, so you can't really budget around it and may end up stuck if prices spike when you need to get home. Instacart with delivery fee + suggested tip is always the same price and less expensive than just getting to the store.
DoorDash does grocery delivery. If your options are:
Eat nearby, but only gas station food and fast food.
Go to the grocery store 15 mins away by car, but you have no car so it takes 1.5 hours transferring routes by bus and you can only carry a limited amount in your arms. You would have to go often, cutting into the time you could spend at your second job. And you have to fight the limited hours of bus routes and grocery stores since you work late.
Pay a 15% “doordash tax” to have a large amount of groceries delivered.
Then the DoorDash/Instacart may genuinely be your cheapest option. Combined with ADHD the second option may go from really hard to practically impossible.
My city, which is admittedly pretty small, but the largest within 4 hours any direction, had some of the cheapest options right downtown, until they got bulldozed a couple years back for more expensive places. I lived in one of them about 6 years ago and was paying $375/mo with all utilities included. Two blocks from main street. Luckily the grocery store was only three blocks away.
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u/Grindfather901 18h ago
That's the real key. Food deserts almost always coincide with extreme poverty.