Everything I’ve read about American suburbs tells me you must be an exception - stores are usually much farther than a 15 minute walk, and often there are simply no sidewalks at all.
“Nobody is forced to do anything” is hand waving away all of the context around housing, jobs, city planning and transportation. There is a reason 99% of trips to the supermarket are made by car, it’s not simply a matter of “choice”: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2015/august/most-us-hou...
There is a reason why giant stores are not on every corner - they are designed to be huge warehouses that at times are large enough to service the entire city, given a small enough city.
It is definitely a matter of choice. The US as a country is just as large and diverse as EU. You can certainly live in a very dense city centre somewhere in North East that will be very much “European”, with public transit and everything. It would be too much hassle to even have a car.
Or you could live on a ranch somewhere hours away from “civilization”
“Nobody is forced to do anything” is hand waving away all of the context around housing, jobs, city planning and transportation. There is a reason 99% of trips to the supermarket are made by car, it’s not simply a matter of “choice”: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2015/august/most-us-hou...