A lot of Europeans live the same way as Mr. Reguly describes.   Not all, to be sure, however, there are many.   

The one thing that needs to happen here to make more frequent grocery shopping feasible is for there to be either more high-quality small foodstores or small markets, especially in the summer.   The markets in Europe are amazing in a lot of places and it's possible to completely avoid large shops if you really want to in many places.

And I didn't grow up with air conditioning at all.   There was none in the house.   It's pretty tough in the city at times now without it, however, I sometimes wonder what would happen to urban temperatures if we really cut back our use of it and looked for other approaches to cooling.   Between concrete, glass, mirrors and air conditioning units, cities are heat mills in the summer now.