From all major living areas of Philly there are dozens of big box retailers directly accessible via public transport (Home Depot, Loews, Best Buy, SuperWalmart, ShopRite, Sams Club, Bj's Wholesale, IKEA etc). All have delivery vehicles available for rent by the hour for anything too big to carry home.
And it always seems that we assume these huge retail shops are an american invention..but Carrefour started the hypermarket concept in the early 60s in France. Didn't catch on here until much later.
All the major malls in this area also have mass transit options for people from Philly.Re: Entirely dependent on having wheels.
Not that big a deal anyway, as his gloom and doom forecast of me being starved out of my cheese doodles in 2 years time is just a shade unlikely.