Why Big Box Stores Are Doomed, And What Might Replace Them

[Warpy]

I hope I'm around to see it all come full circle.

Worst things about the big box joints for me was the anonymity.

I admit, shopping in parts of Boston was a challenge at first, one little store for dairy, eggs and cheese, another for meats, another for fish, and another for boxed items and staples like flour and sugar. It was also nice, people recognized you by the third visit and sometimes had even introduced you to the store cat, the health department looking the other way because occasional cat hair was cleaner than rat turds. Plus, you didn't feel compelled to do all your shopping in one go since you didn't have to drive and park in an asphalt moonscape to get there and sure as hell didn't want to come back any time soon.

I'll be glad to wave goodbye to the big box stores, not that there are any around me any more, they said they closed down due to high crime but I know they're chasing the bucks in the new neighborhoods in town where everybody needs everything for their new houses.

[dem4decades]

1. I hope you don't consider Costco a big box store.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Based on my research

(Watching Modern Family and the History Channel)

Yes, I’m afraid Costco is a "big box store."

[Warpy]

5. It is. It follows the pattern of location and construction

It's well run by upper management practicing enlightened self interest, so it's not a hellhole to work in.

It is, however, a big box store.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Adam Ruins Everything - How a Legal Loophole Created a Mall Bonanza (sneak peek)

https://www.trutv.com/shows/adam-ruins-everything/season-1/episode-16/adam-ruins-shopping-malls

[Wonder Why]

4. The department stores and supermarkets ate the local shops. Then the malls ate the oiginal Deptment/Supermarket stores.

Then the Walmarts and the COSTCO/Sam's ate the malls. Now Amazon/eBay is eating the Big Boxes. Hopefully, the small local stores will make a bigger comeback.

[Warpy]

6. What ate the malls was a decline in purchasing power

as wages have lagged far behind inflation and greedheads aren't sharing the benefits of increased productivity with the people who increased it. Another factor was the megamerger which decreased the number of "anchor stores" like big department stores and bankruptcies of those that didn't merge. Smaller specialty stores were expected to keep the mall rent cash flow going, so they started to go under. 2008 hurt the malls badly. Covid pretty much finished them off. Oh, some are bravely hanging in there, but they're dinosaurs.

The big box stores weren't much of a substitute since they all have limited stock. People could simply no longer afford what they wanted and had to take what they could get for wages that are often shit.

I don't know what's going to happen to all the malls. My guess says they'll mostly be torn down, acres of rubble surrounded by even more acres of asphalt as silent reminders of what happens when a country fattens the rich at the expense of everybody else.