I used to live just outside downtown in Oliver, a place with decent transit and access to buses and LRTs. I had a car, but took the bus to work and only used the car if I needed to go shopping after work.

Despite where I lived, I had to use my car for even smaller runs of groceries. There was actually no direct bus that went from the 109th st Save On to where I lived a few blocks north, and a trip filled with transfers would've taken over an hour to go a 5-min drive. Even a small bag of things like milk, cream, etc would've been too heavy for me to carry that distance.

If I wanted to go to a store with cheap(er) groceries, go to a craft store like Michael's, Costco, a used bookstore, a thrift store... literally any useful store, I'd have to drive.

Being car-free is a choice that's either taken from you (can't afford a car), or one of extreme privilege where you can afford bikes, safe cycling gear, grocery shopping in small amounts more frequently (ie. don't have to stock up on sale items to make it affordable) and most importantly, the time involved in taking so much longer to perform basic tasks.

Living downtown and being able to afford to do all your shopping there (and pay higher prices) is also a luxury that not everyone has.