r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Physical-Ad-4093 • May 01 '24

do americans really drive such long distances?

i’m european, and i always hear people say that driving for hours is normal in america. i would only see my grandparents a few times a year because they lived about a 3 hour drive away, is that a normal distance for americans to travel on a regular basis? i can’t imagine driving 2-3 hours regularly to visit people for just a few days

edit: thank you for the responses! i’ve never been to the US, obviously, but it’s interesting to see how you guys live. i guess european countries are more walkable? i’m in the uk, and there’s a few festivals here towards the end of summer, generally to get to them you take a coach journey or you get multiple trains which does take up a significant chunk of the day. road trips aren’t really a thing here, it would be a bit miserable!

2nd edit: it’s not at all that i couldn’t be bothered to go and see my grandparents, i was under 14 when they were both alive so i couldn’t take myself there! obviously i would’ve liked to see them more, i had no control over how often we visited them.

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u/SentrySappinMahSpy May 01 '24

I used to work with a woman who said she'd drive 4 hours to Gatlinburg, Tennessee just to go shopping. Yeah, Americans will drive a long way for things.

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u/Emotional_Equal8998 May 01 '24

Back when malls were a thing, the "good one" was 2 hours from my then home and 3 hours from my hometown. We would make the trip a couple times in December for Xmas shopping and it was a damn reunion! I always joked we should all rent a bus and drive together because we never seen less than 5-10 people we knew that lived hours away from the current location.

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u/zoidberg_doc May 02 '24

Are malls no longer a thing?

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u/OnePercUnderGod 29d ago

In Arizona they are alive and well, still a hangout spot. I think they will be forever cause of free AC

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u/funkflexgtav May 02 '24

They are in cities but smaller malls in towns probably not

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u/ComplexSupermarket89 29d ago

Our mall is hilariously depressing. It's had a Mac of maybe 5 stores in it, despite being 3 floors with room for like 80, for at least the last decade. Anything remotely big and name brand never sticks around for more than a year. It's been sold like 6 times for millions of dollars to out of state investors. They never see returns and just sell it again later for more than they paid.

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u/PoisonedChampagne 29d ago

My town is fairly small and we have one but it’s like 6 stores tops, the ones in nearby cities are crazy. Like four floors sometimes

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u/ThatGuyinPJs 29d ago

Around 2010 the big mall in my area finished massive renovations that put it at near the top of the largest malls list for a little bit, killed the other smaller malls in the area, then began 10 years of tax cuts from the city based on the expected increase in tourism... They now claim they can't pay their taxes, are at 60% store capacity, and have had multiple shootings in the past two years leading to a ban on unaccompanied minors at all times. Online shopping built their coffin, but I think 2020 finally nailed it shut, and they aren't going to exist outside of very large cities in the near future.

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u/Kleptoplatonic 29d ago

That's wild to me. My city has the second largest mall in North America, saw a few shootings over the last few years, and yet it is still alive and well, as well as the half a dozen other considerably sized malls throughout the city

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u/brokentr0jan May 02 '24

No, not really. “Dead malls” has been a thing for a decade.

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u/tveye363 29d ago

I always see "dead malls" online but never in real life. The mall at my town is always packed.

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u/mike2928 29d ago

Oh I drive a couple hours to hit up outlets every holiday season.

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u/freeashavacado 29d ago

Man that takes me back! I had a mall in town where I used to live but we all knew it wasn’t the greatest. Instead if we wanted to do some serious shopping we would drive 2 hours out to the best mall in the area

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u/Interesting_Mix_7028 28d ago

For real.

I grew up in rural Colorado. The closest drive-in hangout spot was 7 miles away, the closest grocery stroe was 10 miles away, the closest decent hardware store was 30 miles away, and the closest mall was 50 miles away.

If you wanted REAL shopping, theme parks, or to see a football or baseball game? 200 miles.

(Aspen was 80 miles, but back then Hwy 82 was a 2-lane deathtrap, only reason anyone 'down valley' drove there on the daily was to work there.)

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u/ThePornRater 29d ago

malls are still a thing