I've only visited for a few days but there are supermarkets and at least one really nice public market much like in Menton and Nice. Probably the prices are not French prices but they do cater for non-uber wealth.
I was surprised how family friendly the whole Principality felt once you are in residential neighborhoods outside the whole casino area, plenty of 'average' moms with strollers, children's parks etc.
If you are in good condition you can basically traverse the whole place by walking, very walk-able despite some very busy roads. We were traveling along the French coast but we just parked the car in a shopping mall park and traveled around the Principality by bus and walking. Public transit covers the whole Principality with bus lines, immaculate and very regular. One thing I did notice is that despite very good public transit it doesn't seem to be heavily used but I also didn't witness 'rush hour' from people traveling from France.
Like it's been mentioned a couple of times the whole place is video surveilled and there are Police men in pretty much every busy spot, plus all entry/exits into the principality, so overall it feels a bit like Singapore in the sense of being a heavy on rule-of-law fortress.
The negative aspects I recall:
- The amount of air pollution in some of the roads but this was summer time with little wind so that might play into it.
- Architecture wise apart from the old town parts and the palace/castle hill, looks like they went through heavy construction in the 80's and 90's so you see lots of concrete forest ugliness throughout the Principality.
I’ve lived across America (which is very different from Monaco I’m sure) and no one has ever asked me about what the grocery stores are like, nor has it come up. I don’t think it’d even be something I’d think about when moving unless it’s VERY different.
Discussing housing, citizenship, government, all seems quite relevant to living. The “vibe” and what to expect as the culture seems quite relevant.
Because grocery prices across EU/Europe vary by a huge margin, and going out for a drink /coffee even more. Nowadays things are getting similar due to poor countries getting better, and old powers stagnating in comparison.
Logistics and what is produced nearby used a big factor (also local brands, different countries used to mean different brands), again due to trade agreements (trade between EU countries) and infrastructure improvements.
So you won't find a lot a price and availability difference in what you used to find pre-euro, but there's still some difference, just not as choking.
Also, USA salaries tend on the bigger side, and USA food is also cheaper do to loads of subsidies and bad regulation(so, sugary, worse quality checks, but cheaper), corporation centralisation (EU is made of different countries which used to mean different food corps as well), so the grocery experience is not as relevant.
I went to Canada a few years ago, and I HAD to visit a Walmart (my friend who had moved there said he did the same when he arrived).
So wondering about daily life is legitimate.
I was somehow disappointing, however.
It turns out a Walmart is a supermarket, like in any other place.
So it's indeed not news worthy.
I was wondering that too. For a time I lived on Oxford Street London. You could easily buy, say, designer socks, or an extremely expensive pint of milk, but for grocery shopping you had to walk half a mile to a supermarket.
Living, for most, would include things like grocery shopping, getting around, transport, activities etc but this article does not mention any of that.