I don't follow your argument. I've lived in various major European cities and it was always easy enough to find a discount supermarket (Lidl, Aldi etc.) within walking distance, and if not, maybe within 5 minutes of cycling. There would've rarely been a need to use the (more expensive, but certainly not 50%) corner grocery store. Everyone can afford this — quite the contrary: people often ignore the hundreds of Euros they spend on a car, because it's just a given for them. (That said, I know there are lots of people who depend on the car for getting to a work location because of lack of public transport.)

I don't know about the building you're talking about and can't weigh in on this.