Once businesses started to leave Main Street or "downtown" and began moving towards more open and larger spaces "shopping centers", the size and scale of the projects and stores began to grow. Here in Denver one of the first areas to develop was the Cherry Creek Mall in 1953. Wards and Sears became some of the first anchor stores. This kind of growth was inevitable.
Americans have plenty of options. There are still opportunities for small shop "mom and pops" if a store is specialized enough. We appreciate the convenience doing our shopping in one stop, followed by price and quality. What kind of stores do they have in France?
Like much of Europe, France went kinda car-crazy during "Les Trente Glorieuses" - the thirty years of constant economic growth following WWII... and has been backpedaling ever since. I was living in Eastern France (Moselle) fifty years ago when the city of Metz created the first pedestrian zone in the country, closing off an important street and several side streets to automobiles. Doomsayers predicted the collapse of the area‘s economy "because people would have to walk". Within twenty years, all of the center of the city was pedestrian. Almost all French cities have followed the same trajectory.
Even Paris is gradually reducing cars in favor of micro mobility.
In my neighborhood (small individual houses on the northern side of Calais, on the English Channel), we have a "small big-box", with a McDonald's and a number of diverse shops, about a five minute walk from home. Appropriately small parking lot. There's a big (even by American criteria) mall on the other side of the city, where you'll find all the usual chain stores for clothes, appliances, and all. LOTS of parking, on three levels, to limit surface area. Calais is on the coast - an important freeway follows the coast from neighboring Belgium south to Normandy, and we use a tiny portion of it to get to the big mall.
There's a boulangerie (bakery) near home - gotta have easy access to croissants! And practically nextdoor we have a tiny "whatever" shop - kinda like 7-Eleven.
I am glad I did not pass on this article (see video above)! It is very informative and I mean that! Who knew the "big box stores" we love are actually bad for the communities in which we live. I mean, yes, we love the discounted pricing. . . and some of us are aware of the 'remote attention given to our concerns' from corporate offices centered in a faraway location, but we still fail to put together the meaning that 'big box stores' are like those shareholders whose goal is to de-personalize your experience and sell out without any sense of loyalty to the folks they serve.
I thought about that before—even more so than with big box stores. . . but, there is still something about getting a saving or savings that carries its own 'efficiency' that I ought not ignore. Let those with disposable income 'plus' buy brand on routine supplies, I say.
BTW, my understanding is discount stores can get the overflow (unsold) products from other stores left on the delivery trucks after off-loading to stores and warehouses and sale for less. Even so, with some gas stations that 'top off' leaving fuel in the tankards to dispense with at other 'Client' stations.
Eye-opening. The video on this article is every bit worthy of the time you all spend viewing it! Really. Especially if you are not familiar with the content it shares.
Thanks for taking the trouble to do that CB, but since I can't open Youtube it provides me with no more information than the article title, and anyone who comments on a posted article without reading the article gets criticized on NT.
It sounds like the document discusses the characteristics and impacts of Big Box stores on cities and communities. Here's a summarized overview:
Big Box Stores and City Dynamics:
Appearance and Design: Big Box stores are large, windowless, single-story buildings surrounded by expansive parking lots. Their design contrasts sharply with vibrant, human-scaled city designs that promote walkability and community engagement.
Economic Impact: Although they offer low prices through bulk discounts, they can harm local economies by bankrupting smaller businesses and generating lower tax revenue per acre compared to mixed-use downtown areas.
Infrastructure Costs: Cities incur significant expenses to support these stores, including road maintenance, water and sewage systems, traffic signals, and other infrastructure. These costs often outweigh the tax benefits Big Box stores provide.
Land Use and Zoning: They occupy substantial land areas due to zoning laws requiring large parking lots. This encourages suburban sprawl and car-dependent lifestyles, moving away from walkable neighborhoods.
Historical Shift: The dominance of Big Box stores rose in the mid-20th century as regulations like the Robinson-Patman Act became unenforced, allowing large retailers to thrive.
Economic and Structural Issues of Big Box Stores:
Impact on Local Businesses: Big Box retailers aim for substantial market share in new areas, often driving smaller shops out of business, which reduces local property tax contributions.
Property Tax Manipulations: They use strategies like the "Dark Store" theory, arguing their buildings should be assessed as nearly worthless due to their limited usability once vacated. This tactic lowers their tax obligations.
Short Lifespans of Structures: Their buildings are designed for temporary use (about 15 years), promoting a cycle of abandonment and relocation. Restrictive deed clauses prevent competitors from occupying vacated sites, often leaving them empty.
Community Disconnect: Unlike local businesses, which often value their historical ties and contribution to the community, Big Box retailers prioritize profit over local engagement.
Vacant Buildings: When abandoned, these structures rarely find productive reuse due to their size and specific design. Businesses like Spirit Halloween occasionally utilize these empty spaces, but such instances are limited.
Challenges and Consequences of Big Box Stores:
Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Losses: Cities often welcome Big Box stores for immediate sales tax revenue and as anchor tenants for shopping developments. However, the long-term costs, such as infrastructure maintenance and lost local businesses, outweigh these benefits.
Vacant Properties: When Big Box stores relocate, they leave behind massive, often unusable buildings. Municipalities sometimes repurpose these spaces (e.g., libraries), but renovations are costly and often impractical.
Economic Drain: Studies show that Big Box stores can cost cities more than they generate. For example, a Walmart in Ohio resulted in a net annual loss of $20,000 per store due to secondary costs like increased policing.
Community Impact: In small towns, the closure of Big Box stores can leave communities without essential services like grocery stores and pharmacies, significantly affecting property values and quality of life.
Systemic Issues: The reliance on car-centric suburban development and short-term financial thinking perpetuates these problems, leaving cities financially strained.
Economic and Social Drawbacks of Big Box Stores:
Reduced Community Benefits: Compared to small businesses, Big Box stores contribute far less to local economies. For every $100 spent, small businesses retain $48 in the community, while Big Box chains retain only $14.
Limited Local Integration: Big Box stores rarely use local services or suppliers, directing profits to centralized locations or even overseas. Walmart, for instance, sources around 60% of its products from China, immediately moving money out of the country.
Tax Avoidance: These corporations exploit tax loopholes, employing accountants to minimize their financial obligations. Walmart reportedly uses shell companies in Luxembourg to shift profits, draining local and national tax revenues.
Job Creation Myths: Despite appearances, Big Box stores often reduce overall employment in an area. A study showed a 3% drop in total jobs within five years of Walmart entering a county. The positions they do create tend to be part-time and poorly paid, leading many workers to depend on government assistance like SNAP.
Predatory Practices: By undercutting local retailers with loss leaders, Walmart and similar stores often dominate markets. Once smaller shops close, these Big Box retailers may become the only employers in town, further impacting the local economy negatively.
Solutions to Big Box Store Challenges:
Revitalize Downtown Areas: Cities should invest in walkable downtowns and clusters of locally-owned stores that keep money circulating in the community, are more visually appealing, and provide better long-term revenue.
Encourage Local Shopping: Supporting local businesses that integrate with the community, employ local services, and source locally boosts the economy and social fabric.
Regulatory Reforms: Stronger laws are needed to curb practices like bulk discounting and loss-leaders, which allow Big Box retailers to undercut small businesses. Tax codes should also prioritize fairness for local stores.
Culture Shift: Reacclimating citizens to shop downtown or at smaller retailers involves making pricing competitive and enhancing the shopping experience. Cultural preferences can evolve over time, with younger generations already leaning toward rejecting car-centric lifestyles.
Alternative Models and Lessons:
European Hypermarkets: These are regulated more effectively than their American counterparts, with laws to protect local businesses, improve urban planning, and discourage harmful practices like loss-leaders. Walmart's failure in Germany showcases how stricter regulations and strong labor unions can counteract destructive business models.
Community Development Strategies: Import Replacement Strategies, which prioritize businesses that keep dollars circulating locally, offer a promising path for cities seeking sustainable growth.
This document encourages cities and communities to rethink their reliance on Big Box retailers and advocates for fostering local economies and urban vitality. Let me know if you'd like to dive into any specific ideas or explore related topics further!
Personal note: "Copilot" did this when another AI kind of balked. Although, to be fair, I did think to 'break it up' more to input to Copilot. Still what a 'champ' to summarize a twenty-five to twenty-eight minutes video! Three cheers!
Thank you for posting that, CB. The only time we go to a Big Box store is about 2 or 3 times a year to a METRO store that is about half an hour away by subway, and it is the closest Big Box store to us. The only reason we go there is because no place near, even a large supermarket, does not provide the imported foods I want, such as various cheeses (the only cheese Chinese people are aware of and available locally is processed cheese slices), frozen sliced smoked salmon, frozen Canadian potato cakes, Russian black bread and a few other items not available elsewhere or on line.
As I age, I find I need less to buy. . .so its just simpler (easier) on me to run into the 'big box' (chain store) and know that I have a great chance of getting that 'one-stop' shopping feeling. . . then to 'tool around'—with purpose to not find what I want because of well, because.
So yes I think about helping support "ma-pa" stores, but to no great avail. I always land in the store where I don't have to talk too much. . . and, the surrounding are not pressing in on me. Small business stores seem cluttered from memory.
That said, the video in this article has left an impression. For surely I know how it feels to get that impersonal sense that no one can hear your 'wants and concerns' enough to do anything about it - in the 'boxes.' They can be sketchy-especially when a purchase is outdated technology or an item they no longer attend to/sell. . . the younger employees can give this 'zoned out' look that reminds me of them checking out mentally or as if to say, "We don't do that and don't try to save it- let it go (die)!"
Though, a little inside joke here: If I tell the clerk/floor manager in a box store that there is a pool of pee at the stall or several in the men's room. . . they get right on it. Trip and fall thing you know.
America is made for business, not for Americans.
?
Good seed. Thanks for posting it.
Once businesses started to leave Main Street or "downtown" and began moving towards more open and larger spaces "shopping centers", the size and scale of the projects and stores began to grow. Here in Denver one of the first areas to develop was the Cherry Creek Mall in 1953. Wards and Sears became some of the first anchor stores. This kind of growth was inevitable.
Americans have plenty of options. There are still opportunities for small shop "mom and pops" if a store is specialized enough. We appreciate the convenience doing our shopping in one stop, followed by price and quality. What kind of stores do they have in France?
Like much of Europe, France went kinda car-crazy during "Les Trente Glorieuses" - the thirty years of constant economic growth following WWII... and has been backpedaling ever since. I was living in Eastern France (Moselle) fifty years ago when the city of Metz created the first pedestrian zone in the country, closing off an important street and several side streets to automobiles. Doomsayers predicted the collapse of the area‘s economy "because people would have to walk". Within twenty years, all of the center of the city was pedestrian. Almost all French cities have followed the same trajectory.
Even Paris is gradually reducing cars in favor of micro mobility.
In my neighborhood (small individual houses on the northern side of Calais, on the English Channel), we have a "small big-box", with a McDonald's and a number of diverse shops, about a five minute walk from home. Appropriately small parking lot. There's a big (even by American criteria) mall on the other side of the city, where you'll find all the usual chain stores for clothes, appliances, and all. LOTS of parking, on three levels, to limit surface area. Calais is on the coast - an important freeway follows the coast from neighboring Belgium south to Normandy, and we use a tiny portion of it to get to the big mall.
There's a boulangerie (bakery) near home - gotta have easy access to croissants! And practically nextdoor we have a tiny "whatever" shop - kinda like 7-Eleven.
I am glad I did not pass on this article (see video above)! It is very informative and I mean that! Who knew the "big box stores" we love are actually bad for the communities in which we live. I mean, yes, we love the discounted pricing. . . and some of us are aware of the 'remote attention given to our concerns' from corporate offices centered in a faraway location, but we still fail to put together the meaning that 'big box stores' are like those shareholders whose goal is to de-personalize your experience and sell out without any sense of loyalty to the folks they serve.
It's not just the "big box stores", all those "dollar stores" do the equivalent to even smaller communities.
I thought about that before—even more so than with big box stores. . . but, there is still something about getting a saving or savings that carries its own 'efficiency' that I ought not ignore.
Let those with disposable income 'plus' buy brand on routine supplies, I say.
BTW, my understanding is discount stores can get the overflow (unsold) products from other stores left on the delivery trucks after off-loading to stores and warehouses and sale for less. Even so, with some gas stations that 'top off' leaving fuel in the tankards to dispense with at other 'Client' stations.
Eye-opening. The video on this article is every bit worthy of the time you all spend viewing it! Really. Especially if you are not familiar with the content it shares.
I enjoy the juxtaposition of virulent anti-tariff fanatics attacking big box retailers.
?
Here you go, Buzz:
Youtube:
These Ugly Big Box Stores are Literally Bankrupting Cities
Thanks for taking the trouble to do that CB, but since I can't open Youtube it provides me with no more information than the article title, and anyone who comments on a posted article without reading the article gets criticized on NT.
Copilot gave its all to this:
It sounds like the document discusses the characteristics and impacts of Big Box stores on cities and communities. Here's a summarized overview:
Big Box Stores and City Dynamics:
Economic and Structural Issues of Big Box Stores:
Challenges and Consequences of Big Box Stores:
Economic and Social Drawbacks of Big Box Stores:
Solutions to Big Box Store Challenges:
Alternative Models and Lessons:
This document encourages cities and communities to rethink their reliance on Big Box retailers and advocates for fostering local economies and urban vitality. Let me know if you'd like to dive into any specific ideas or explore related topics further!
Personal note: "Copilot" did this when another AI kind of balked. Although, to be fair, I did think to 'break it up' more to input to Copilot. Still what a 'champ' to summarize a twenty-five to twenty-eight minutes video! Three cheers!
Thank you for posting that, CB. The only time we go to a Big Box store is about 2 or 3 times a year to a METRO store that is about half an hour away by subway, and it is the closest Big Box store to us. The only reason we go there is because no place near, even a large supermarket, does not provide the imported foods I want, such as various cheeses (the only cheese Chinese people are aware of and available locally is processed cheese slices), frozen sliced smoked salmon, frozen Canadian potato cakes, Russian black bread and a few other items not available elsewhere or on line.
As I age, I find I need less to buy. . .so its just simpler (easier) on me to run into the 'big box' (chain store) and know that I have a great chance of getting that 'one-stop' shopping feeling. . . then to 'tool around'—with purpose to not find what I want because of well, because.
So yes I think about helping support "ma-pa" stores, but to no great avail. I always land in the store where I don't have to talk too much. . . and, the surrounding are not pressing in on me. Small business stores seem cluttered from memory.
That said, the video in this article has left an impression. For surely I know how it feels to get that impersonal sense that no one can hear your 'wants and concerns' enough to do anything about it - in the 'boxes.' They can be sketchy-especially when a purchase is outdated technology or an item they no longer attend to/sell. . . the younger employees can give this 'zoned out' look that reminds me of them checking out mentally or as if to say, "We don't do that and don't try to save it- let it go (die)!"
Though, a little inside joke here: If I tell the clerk/floor manager in a box store that there is a pool of pee at the stall or several in the men's room. . . they get right on it. Trip and fall thing you know.