

Originally airlines preferred them over two engined planes because they were safer,
Up until ETOPS (aka Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim) was introduced in 1986, it was not even legal to run cross-atlantic flights to and from the U.S with twin engines.
As I understand it, point-to-point taking over from hub-and-spoke coincided with mid-size high-range airplanes like the 787. Before that, the economics of running point-to-point had trouble penciling out, since you needed fairly large aircraft to handle the distance. Hence, hub-and-spoke made sense - run small aircraft to and from hubs and then run a large long-range aircraft carrying a large amount of passengers.
About 200 meters, but I usually take the bike down to the Lidl 1 km away.
Where I last lived I had 200 meters to a small shop and 3.5 km to the local Lidl, which was fine but not ideal.
Getting a bike with a rack might be a good idea for your grocery runs. 3 km is less than 10 minutes on a bike.