Cost benefits of city living

January 15, 2009 9:28 AM

What are some things (items, services, etc) that are cheaper in major cities than in suburban areas?

My wife and I were thinking about it this morning, and the only examples we've come up with so far (based on our years here in NYC) are cut flowers and manicures\pedicures*

* Presumably because of competition - there are tons of nail salons in NYC and in addition to florists just about every bodega carries flowers.

posted by JaredSeth to work & money (25 comments total)

Wash and fold type laundry services.
posted by peacheater at 9:34 AM on January 15

Public transportation is cheaper than having to own a car.
posted by Oktober at 9:35 AM on January 15

Well...I dont know if this counts although its a major reason people move into cities:

The cost of "getting to work" is cheaper if you live and work in the city. That may be generally true of the suburbs but jobs tend to be concentrated in cities, so there's an asymmetry there.
posted by vacapinta at 9:35 AM on January 15

Ethnic food?
posted by downing street memo at 9:38 AM on January 15

Any imported or "ethnic" food item, unless the suburb itself is a hotspot for Germans/Taiwanese/Koreans/Indians/whoever. The prices for the Chinese and Japanese candies at Walgreens and World Markets crack me up! Never mind the prices for things like kabocha at farflung suburban gourmet markets as opposed to urban Asian supermarkets.

(Of course, I live in a surburb that's part of a major metro, so we kind of have everything.)
posted by wintersweet at 9:38 AM on January 15

The cost of "getting to work" is cheaper if you live and work in the city.

And not just getting to work, but getting anywhere -- restaurants (or any kind of establishment), parks (or any public space), residences (friends, family), etc. The more places you want to go are concentrated in the same area within walking distance, the more you can get around by foot; hence, the less money spent on driving.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:49 AM on January 15

A word about cars: "getting around" in the city is generally cheaper by mass transit than by car, but getting around in the suburbs by car can be competitive with getting around in the city, whereas mass transit in the suburbs is generally impossible.

Keeping a car in major urban areas, particularly New York City, is massively expensive. Parking alone can be north of $100 a month, easy. Insurance is generally several times what it is in suburban areas too. Compare that to mass transit, and $100/month looks pretty decent.

But owning a car in the suburbs is far cheaper. Parking is normally free, and insurance can be as little as $100/month/car, so throw in gas prices and it can be competitive with urban transport. As cheap as? No, probably not, but it's not quite as overwhelming a disparity as it may seem.

Furthermore, urban commute times are frequently much longer than suburban ones, unless you're going from the suburbs into the city. A thirty to sixty minute commute in the city is pretty commonplace unless you are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of your workplace. As an illustration, I once traveled from my apartment in Tennessee to a location in New York City via a direct, early morning flight. I left my house at 5:30 and got where I was going at about noon. But I landed at LaGuardia at about 10:00. So of my 800+ mile trip, the last nine miles took almost two hours. A two mile commute in the city is hard to do in less than fifteen minutes, but doing that in the suburbs would take five minutes, tops. Many suburban commuters would consider a thirty minute commute to be somewhat lengthy; that won't just get you downtown, that will get you to the next town. So yeah, transportation in the suburbs may cost more money, but it frequently costs less time.
posted by valkyryn at 9:51 AM on January 15

Public transportation is cheaper than having to own a car.

Yeah, we thought of this too...but it's really not necessarily any cheaper than mass transit in the burbs, just more extensive. I know of plenty of smaller towns where you can take the bus for two dollars, as long as you're trying to get to one of the limited places covered by the routes.
posted by JaredSeth at 10:00 AM on January 15

Services like manicures/pedicures at your average strip-mall-type nail salon.
posted by penchant at 10:08 AM on January 15

Derr. I can read. Or not. Ignore me.
posted by penchant at 10:09 AM on January 15

Gasoline (in the US).
posted by Zambrano at 10:28 AM on January 15

Random - but true, according to a couple of friends - Lasik corrective eye surgery. After shopping around between NYC and where they're from (upstate and Houston), they found they could save about $800 by going to reputable doctors in the city. I'm assuming this one goes into the "More Competition" category.
posted by acorn1515 at 10:32 AM on January 15

I don't know if it's universally true, but when my wife and I moved from the city (Dallas) to the suburbs, our trash collection bill increased about five fold. I'm assuming it might be true for other cities because of the economy of scale, but I could be wrong.
posted by rmtravis at 10:57 AM on January 15

This is a little bit of a different take on this, but if your time is worth money, I often get delivery of UPS and USPS items a lot faster when I order things, whether it be online orders or movie or game rentals. I think it's because distribution centers tend to be located near major cities.
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:15 AM on January 15

Gasoline (in the US)

This depends on which large city. Gas in L.A. is always above the national average, and also in Milwaukee as well.
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:17 AM on January 15

Gasoline (in the US).

Gasoline is not cheaper in Chicago relative to the suburbs, and I'd assume the same is true of other cities as well.

Remember that even though prices of goods may be comparable, one should factor in gas + time expended to get the particular good. I live in the suburbs. If I want to buy milk, I have to drive 4 miles roundtrip. In the city, that might only be a 5 minute jaunt to the next block.
posted by desjardins at 11:17 AM on January 15

Depending on the scale of living (and how you compare these), living expenses like utilties. In my NYC apartment, heat, hot water, garbage collection, etc are all included in my rent, so the only bill I have is for electricity (less than $60 per month). Of course, my rent=two mortgage payments, so it's not apples to apples.

Nthing mani/pedis as well as many other salon services (waxing, massages, etc) because of competition.

Street food (coffee carts, halal, etc) cannot be found at all in many suburbs. All kinds of ethnic food is cheaper in a major city.

There are a lot more free cultural events in a large city--free or pay what you wish days at museums, free skating rinks, free movies or concerts in the park, better library systems.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 11:20 AM on January 15

A lot of fruits and veggies are cheaper and higher quality here in San Francisco compared to some suburbs where one only has access to big supermarkets like Safeway or Lucky.
posted by cucumberfresh at 12:22 PM on January 15

Things that are cheap in New York City in particular:

- Many foodstuffs, including pizza (99 cents a slice from numerous places), fresh fruit and vegetables (From Chinatown and those guys with carts), coffee (Gray's Papaya charges 25 cents a cup), spices (your friendly neighborhood ethnic food store), soy milk and tofu (Chinatown again), ...

- Kitchen supplies, from the Bowery

- Electronics, particularly computer accessories like cables and hard drives, if you know where to look and you don't mind sketchy.

- Maybe haircuts? In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, $12 seems to be standard for men, though of course you can pay much more. I also once got my hair cut in Amherst, Mass and paid only $9. I still think $12 is a better deal than I'd get in most suburbs, though.

- ATM fees. On my street, there are three bodegas in a row, with 50-cent, 39-cent, and 0-cent ATMs, respectively. I'm not sure if this counts, though, since you can always just go to your bank.
posted by goingonit at 12:26 PM on January 15

Oh, also some articles of clothing (again, depending on the sort of sketch factor you're up for)--you can get direct access to wholesalers in NY (in the 20s around 6th avenue there are some great deals) and also buy cheap scarves, hats, and bedding on the street.
posted by goingonit at 12:29 PM on January 15

Musical instruments.
posted by dilettante at 3:43 PM on January 15

drugs.
posted by generalist at 4:05 PM on January 15

this is interesting to me, as almost everything here (philly) is way more expensive than back home (mid-michigan). perhaps that's an east coast vs. midwest thing, and not a city vs. suburb thing?
posted by misanthropicsarah at 4:42 PM on January 15

Thanks for all the great answers, everyone.

goingonit, I wish I could find cheap ATMs like that in my neighborhood.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:40 PM on January 15

car rentals (zip car, etc.)
posted by bananafish at 11:47 PM on January 15