Something I think that goes underappreciated: in many parts of the world, the food supply chain is shorter and the food is fresher to begin with. You're not meant to shop for 14 days at a time; you're meant to go more frequently and get what you need, fresh.
The refrigerator is a relatively modern invention. There's always been a refrigerator for me, but as a child my mother sometimes stayed with people who didn't own one and for her mother they were a new invention many people didn't have.
Actually this idea of just buying things at "the store" is relatively new too. Historically people would make more things themselves, and more food would be purchased directly from farmers who had grown it.
