ATM

Small Towns Compared

I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that some things that we are used to having easy access to – grocery stores, Starbucks, etc. – are not so readily available near the small town we were living in in Mexico. There are usually local alternatives of course, but I wrote about it to give some idea of what life was like for an American living in Mexico versus living at home in California.

Since leaving Mexico in January, we have lived in a couple of small towns in the US. I can now report that many of those same conveniences are much less convenient in small-town America than in the suburbs of California. Interestingly, in some cases the options available in the US are more limited than they are in Mexico.

Here are some of the key places I thought of as either “essential” for everyday living, or something that we “expect” to be available nearby. I included distances in both miles and minutes, for each of the three small towns we’ve lived in over the past year. The ones with an asterisk (*) are the “winners” for that category.

Beginning with Mexico, here are the distances from our small town there:

* Hospital – 14 miles / 25 minutes

Starbucks – 35 miles / 70 minutes

Full service grocery store – 18 miles / 29 minutes

* Convenience grocery store – 0.1 miles / 2 minutes walking

Home Depot – 36 miles / 72 minutes

Name brand fast food – 19 miles / 31 minutes

* ATM – 0.7 miles / 4 minutes

Walmart – 19 miles / 31 minutes

Costco – 90 miles / 114 minutes

Notes – Even though our town in Mexico has only three winning categories, it is the only small town we’ve been in where living without a car would be an option. The three winning categories are critical ones – medical care, cash and groceries. At least 90% of what someone would need for daily living are available within walking distance from our house, i.e., less than a mile away. In fact, the entire town isn’t much more than a mile across, so all neighbors are within walking distance as well. For items too large to carry, delivery is often available for little or no charge. For items not available in town, there are frequent buses into a city of 99,000 population, about half an hour away. This city does not have a Home Depot or Starbucks, but it has Walmart, a full size grocery store, and pretty much anything else you would need, including alternatives to Home Depot and Starbucks.

After leaving Mexico, we lived in Kentucky for a couple of months. Here are the distances from our place in Kentucky:

Hospital – 20 miles / 32 minutes

* Starbucks – 20 miles / 31 minutes

* Full service grocery store – 9 miles / 16 minutes

Convenience grocery store – 9 miles / 16 minutes 

Home Depot – 34 miles / 45 minutes

* Name brand fast food – 9 miles / 16 minutes

ATM – 9 miles / 16 minutes

* Walmart – 10 miles / 19 minutes

* Costco – 50 miles / 56 minutes

Notes – Even though Kentucky appears to be the winner with 5 winning categories, nothing is available any closer than the main town, which is 9 miles away. There is nothing available within walking distance, and no public transportation out where we were. There are just three neighbors within walking distance, and not all of these three live there year round. We were between two large cities, 45-60 minutes away, where we could find multiple options for anything we needed or wanted. 

Most recently, we have been living in a small town in the hills of northwestern Massachusetts. Here are the distances from our place in Massachusetts:

Hospital – 24 miles / 39 minutes

Starbucks – 33 miles / 54 minutes

Full service grocery store – 21 miles / 32 minutes

Convenience grocery store – 4.6 miles / 12 minutes

* Home Depot – 21 miles / 32 minutes

Name brand fast food – 21 miles / 32 minutes

ATM – 18 miles / 27 minutes

Walmart – 24 miles / 40 minutes

Costco – 56 miles / 66 minutes

Notes – We are currently living in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts, a popular destination for skiing, water activities, and summer homes, especially for people in the Boston and New York areas. However, as you can see with it winning only one category, it is very remote. There are probably a dozen neighbors within walking distance, but nothing else is walkable and there is no public transportation. It’s similar to Kentucky in that most things are available in the nearest town, except that here the nearest town is 21 miles away, on winding mountain roads. 

So which location is the winner? 

It depends on what you are looking for. Mexico was super convenient for daily needs. We could visit neighbors and purchase nearly anything we wanted without any need for a car. In Kentucky, Walmart and a full service grocery store were 9-10 miles away, making it relatively convenient. In Massachusetts, the distances are generally much further; however, there are various nearby neighbors and there is also a sense of people watching out for each other. We can’t really say we’ve picked a winner. We have thoroughly enjoyed each place we’ve stayed. Perhaps we will get to know additional towns and their people in the future.

Starbucks in Mexico

Cash

American credit cards are accepted here in Mexico, but people don’t use credit cards as widely here as in the US. In the US, we used to buy nearly everything with a credit card – groceries, coffee, fast food… Here, cash is the preferred medium of exchange, unless you’re purchasing a large item such as an appliance. Even the gas stations remain cash only, and it can easily be 800 pesos ($50) to fill the van. That being the case, we go through a lot of cash fast, as we’re getting settled in.

Everything I read in advance suggested that the best way to obtain pesos in Mexico is via your regular debit card at an ATM, and that seems to be holding true for us. Some ATMs will dispense up to 7,000 pesos at a time, about $440, and the exchange rate is pretty favorable. Some of the difficulties we’ve run into:
– many of the ATMs will dispense a maximum of 4,000 pesos ($250);
– one that we used had a surcharge of $6; usually it’s less than $2;
– there’s only one ATM in the town, and they don’t stock it with much cash so what happens is: you put your card in, enter your PIN, select the amount you want, listen to the machine count through the bills, and then it tells you it “cannot complete your request”. It doesn’t tell you why it cannot complete it nor how much money is available, so you have to repeat this process, asking for smaller and smaller amounts, until you hit the right number. The next closest ATM is about 7 miles away, and we’ve only gone to it once, but it was not in service at that time. The next one is 15 miles away from us, in the nearest city (population of 100,000), where there are multiple ATMs available from multiple bank brands, so you can be confident about being able to get cash there. The banks are Mexican brands, not names you would know from the US, although Banamex is affiliated with Citibank. Like with many things here, it takes planning ahead and patience.