5 Surprising Things that are More Convenient in England than in America

As Americans living in the UK for the for the last 2.5 years, we've had many opportunities to reflect and compare between countries.

Generally, most things in America are more convenient (think 200 toothpastes to choose from at Target, 24hr WalMart, Starbucks 5:30am with drive-thru, and Pay at the Pump).


We've been surprised by these five things that are significantly more convenient in the UK:

• Packages delivered on Sunday:  Go ahead and order from Amazon Prime on Saturday afternoon, delivered on Sunday no problem - especially since the geography is much tighter in the UK.

• On-line grocery shopping: All grocery chains offer on-line shopping and delivery (same day or next day delivery).  On-line shopping represents over 10% of shopping, and is growing at double digit percentages.  We now complete 90% of our total grocery shopping on-line.  Oh, and you can also have wine and beer delivered!

• Making friends with other parents at school: There are few school buses in England.  Although inconvenient in many ways, it is incredibly helpful to meet other parents while standing in the playground waiting for your children to come out of the classroom.  All of our closest British friends have come through school connections.

• School uniforms: No need to have a morning fight on what to wear to school today.  Don't have to worry about what Suzy's parents let her go to school in.  Everyone's the same...Mary Catherine Gallagher uniform standard.

• Walking to daily amenities: Within a 5 minute walk, we have 3 grocery stores, dry cleaners, hair salon, bank, post office, 10 pubs, hardware store, 3 coffee shops, a dozen restaurants, 5 churches, 3 bike shops, and a few large department stores.  Perhaps this is more common in any large US city, but we live in a city with a population of 75,000.  We also regularly average over 10,000 daily steps without too much trouble.