Daily life

The everyday stuff: where to shop, how to furnish a place cheaply, and a few small habits (like a throwaway email) that make life here smoother.

Groceries#

• You don't need a car for a big grocery run.
• Instacart lets you order from stores like Costco without a membership.
• Amazon Fresh is very convenient.
• Other stores: Trader Joe's (a bit like Aldi), Safeway (expensive, but good deals if you select them in your account), Target (like Carrefour), and Walmart (Bay Area only, great for random stuff and camping gear, though the food is nothing special).
• Grocery stores are open every day.

Furniture#

• Facebook Marketplace is amazing. Watch for scams.
• Ross: mainly a clothing store, but the furniture and kitchen section is worth a look. A bit like Action, so it depends what you find.
• Walmart.
• IKEA: much more expensive than in Europe.
• Wayfair: nice pieces.

Renting a car#

• Turo and Avis.

Email#

• Make a fresh Gmail account for your time in the US. GDPR doesn't apply here and unsubscribing from newsletters is harder than in Europe, so use this address when you make accounts at Walgreens, Target, Safeway, and the like. If you move back to Belgium later, it's easy to leave it behind.

Drinking#

• Everything closes at 2am.
• Always bring your Belgian ID. A small number of stores insist on a passport and won't accept a photo of your ID, so keep that in mind.