Big Boxes Going Urban

Cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. are now in the sights of big box retailers like Target and WalMart, which are looking at smaller, denser places to place their typically sprawling outlets.

"Sunda Obendorf is the store's "team leader," Target's term for manager. The store is Target's "cookie-cutter" size, she says, at 126,000 square feet. But to make it fit in a densely packed urban area, the space is stacked up on two floors. People ride escalators up and down alongside their shopping carts. Shoppers 'love the cart escalators,' Obendorf says.

Many of the store's shoppers don't come in a car. But people who buy large items like furniture don't have any trouble getting it home. They just hail a cab."