We normally use public transport and do whatever small shopping we need on the way home. If we need big or heavy things, we generally order online. About once a month though, we rent a car for a couple of hours and do a big shop. It’s nice to get things done immediately and it is fun to wander around the huge hypermarkets you don’t find in the city centre. We also use car-sharing if we visit friends who live far out of town. Having a car is way more convenient than public transport in rural areas.
We use a couple of different car sharing companies, but our favourite is Kinto (Toyota). The cars are hybrid and almost always brand new. We rent for a couple of hours to go to IKEA or the large shopping centre near us where you can buy goods cheaply in bulk. The lot is about three minutes’ walk away from where we live and it costs about $10 per hour. We don’t have to worry about parking costs, maintenance, summer and winter tyres, insurance, dents.
