In France, we have a name for French-door fridges, it's American fridges...
The "side by side" standard US frige is what we call in France American fridge because it has two door and look so oversized and fancy compared to the standard fridge in france.
The US "french-door fridge" take the oversizing a step further by adding a third door on the bottom of the "side by side" design. We don't even have a name for theses fridges as nobody buy theses, so I guess we'd call them big American fridge.
Symmetrically EU "regular fridge" probably don't sell in the US because it's perceived as too small. An thus is probably called small/tiny fridge.
Seeing the cars was most shocking thing for me when visiting US.
Then, some stupid person fills their car completely with groceries, can’t see out the back window, and backs into you. So, you get a still bigger car, so they can’t possibly help but see you, and then you crash into them, and it goes back and forth until we are driving around in these land-ships.
Funny but it seems more complicated : https://youtu.be/oOttvpjJvAo?si=1KfRQYKZLdg4d5Bo
How are y'all getting decent bread and milk?
Now Australia’s food quality is pretty damn good compared to most other countries, but it’s just as much if not more of an indication that the average quality of food in the US is abysmal. From the week or so I’ve spent in the US, in a major coastal city, as a ‘rich’ person seeking good food, I’ve gotta say that this is my belief.
So in short I don’t think that many Americans are getting decent bread.
American milk is very pasteurized and might last a month before being opened. But I think I’m mildly lactose intolerant anyway, can’t stand the stuff.
What I don't remember (as someone who left North America) is how we managed to have so much food without wasting all of it.
Quite a lot of my fridge is taken up with random jars that I'll probably never eat. A bigger fridge would just enable more of those.
And also actually food in US does somehow seem to last for longer, as probably the manufacturers anticipate this need and optimize for that (as there's no free lunch, likely at the expense of other factors); I'd never ever buy a half-gallon of milk in a single container in EU because it would start to go bad by the time I get to the end of it, but in USA that was fine.
Maybe something about vastly different food quality standards between the sides of the pond.
Chemical treatments are not the only factor- in terms of fresh commodities (fruits and vegetable) varieties grown play a big role; so too might post-harvest treatments such as irradiation (might be for phytosanitary reasons, but often can extend shelf life if the commodity can withstand it and remain high quality), nano particle coatings that reduce water loss and spoilage.. these are just a few of the things that are going on "behind the scenes" to make our food last longer and reduce food waste.
If you would like to learn more here is a good review on physical treatments specifically for cereal crops: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5920410/ . There is an awful lot that goes into "food quality", and there are important trade offs with every choice.
Probably taste, at least anecdotally - every single person from my side of the world that visited the US that I talked to, mentions the food there tastes just bland in general - and that's both veggies and highly-processed foods.
Sadly, you're right. It doesn't.
In my experience, american fridges contain products that do not perish as easily. Lots of frozen goods and processed foods. Even the fresh foods seem to last longer out here. Milk lives for 2 weeks, their bread is unkillable and longer lasting greens (Kale) are more popular.
where I live the groceries are in the next town over and most people I know go once a week. At the end of the week you have improvised casserole to get rid of anything that is on the verge of funkiness. Always keep some amount of frozen and shelf stable in reserve as well.
I also do canning out of my garden and that stuff will last for ages.
At some point you just have to accept that there are certain things the Americans have gotten right, and we haven't. Family-sized fridges, laundry machines which are roughly colocated with clothes storage and (arguably) sink-based garbage disposals are examples of that.
For the biggest fridge you describe, the extra space is usually a freezer. If you are going to have a freezer anyway, it seems like an overall savings to include it in the fridge. If you don’t have a freezer, you won’t have any icecream, and then is life really worth living?
In the "french door" fridge, the two doors on the top both open to the same compartment, which is the refrigerator. The bottom compartment is a freezer and opens as a drawer.
I am not commenting on taste which may end up more than fine, just looks. But that thick crust adds tons of empty sugar calories to the food that originally doesn't have so much.