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Big Box Retail

Opportunities for Big-Box Developments Abound Across the Northern Border

After being hidden in plain sight for decades, Canada now emerges as the hot spot for U.S. "international" investment.
19 June 2011 - 5:00am
Retail Traffic

Are Local Businesses Making a Comeback?

Styled after Harper's Index, this "Localism Index" suggests that local economies and independent businesses might just be making a comeback.
19 April 2011 - 9:00am
The Nation

Big Boxes Going Urban

Big box retailers are continuing to target urban markets, and finding new ways to squeeze their large sizes into dense urban settings.
23 December 2010 - 10:00am
NPR

An Obstructionist Manifesto

In a recent speech, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called the people who spoke out against a Bass Pro Shop "obstructionists." One of those obstructionists speaks out about the city's economic development processes, which he calls
5 August 2010 - 12:00pm
The Buffalo News
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Mixed Use Outperforms Big Box Development

Tax revenue-per-acre figures for big box developments are only slightly higher than residential developments, and not as high as mixed use project, according to this column from Mary Newsom.
13 July 2010 - 6:00am
Citiwire

Supply and Demand for Big Boxes

The market for big box spaces plunged during the recession as companies like Circuit City folded. But demand is very slightly picking up, and in some places it never went away.
10 January 2010 - 5:00am
Retail Traffic Magazine
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Mixed-Use, V.2: Big Box Living

The Rise, a new mixed-use development in Vancouver, includes 1,500 condos, sushi restaurants, art galleries - and a Home Depot.
15 November 2009 - 1:00pm
The Globe and Mail

City Votes to Control Big Box Stores

Lynchburg, VA approved a new regulation to control big box development in their city earlier this week, despite protests that it would hurt the economy of the area.
25 September 2009 - 6:00am
The Lynchburg News & Advance

Circuit City's Out, Grocery Stores are In

Retail Traffic Magazine reports that grocery stores are increasingly moving into the spaces vacated by big box and chain retailers.
9 August 2009 - 9:00am
Retail Traffic Magazine

Big Box Retail to Destroy Ancient Indian Mound

Officials in the city of Oxford, Alabama have approved the construction of a Sam's Club retail store that will use the dirt of a 1,500 year old Native American ceremonial mound as fill, arguing against reports of its historical significance.
5 August 2009 - 10:00am
Grist
Diana DeRubertis

Shopping: An ‘Obnoxious Industrial Activity’?

Sat, 05/30/2009 - 13:27

 

As James Howard Kunstler points out in Home From Nowhere, one of the tragedies of single-use zoning is that it branded shopping as an “obnoxious industrial activity that must be kept separate from houses”.  Ironically, the places where most Americans shop today come pretty close to “obnoxious” and “industrial”. 

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Provinces Must Curb Retail Sprawl

There is a near-consensus on the deficiencies of big box retail, but municipalities don't have the will to turn them down. Provinces must step in with development guidelines, writes Christopher Hume.
15 May 2009 - 5:00am
Toronto Star

Preserving Cuba's Urban Quality

As U.S.-Cuba relations evolve with a new presidential administration, author Richard Louv argues that officials should be careful about relying on commerce to save the country's decaying urban areas without preserving them.
12 January 2009 - 10:00am
Citiwire

Pro-WalMart Study Refuted

A new and widely publicized study claims that there is no evidence that Wal-Mart has had a negative impact on the small business sector. A close inspection of the study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance argues that the report is flawed.
11 December 2008 - 2:00pm
The Hometown Advantage
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A Look At Big Box Reuse

This slideshow from Slate looks at how to reuse abandoned big boxes.
22 November 2008 - 5:00am
Slate

Big Box Retail Owners Ask For Stacked Housing

The two owners of a traditional 8-acre strip, big box retail center in San Francisco have asked for an amendment to the neighborhood plan (undergoing revision) to allow them to add housing on top of their stores, thus doubling the height limit.
14 November 2008 - 12:00pm
San Francisco Examiner
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