A big box is a box that is big. This phrase also sometimes corresponds to the new trend in urban sprawl to erect commercial buildings that are as cheap as possible in construction quality and price. These buildings are normally surrounded by acres of asphalt and provide very good habitat for automobiles but very poor habitat for living organisms such as people, trees, grass and animals. This article is about the receptacle called a box. ... Big is a 1988 comedy film which tells the story of a teenaged boy who is aged to adulthood by a magical fortune telling machine. ... Urban sprawl (also called suburban sprawl) is a pejorative term for the expansive, often explosive and sometimes reckless, growth of a metropolitan area, traditionally suburbs (or exurbs) over a large area. ... Asphalt is a highly viscous liquid that occurs naturally in most crude petroleums. ... Habitat (from the Latin for it inhabits) is the place where a particular species lives and grows. ... Car redirects here. ...
In this deft and revealing book, Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising pollution and diminished civic engagement—and she shows how a growing number of communities and independent businesses are effectively fighting back.
Drawing on examples from virtually every state in the country, she unearths the extraordinary impact of these stores and the big-box mentality on everything from soaring gasoline consumption to rising poverty rates, failing family farms, and declining voting levels.
Along the way, Mitchell exposes the shocking role government policy has played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that communities composed of many small, locally owned businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by a few large chains.
Labor unions are becoming opposed to bigbox development due to the fact that the employees of such developments are usually not uionized.
It is important to note that the benefits of bigbox retailing, and the reasons they continue to be devleped, is that they offer low prices and "great conveniences for the an increasingly time-deprived society." (Uhlenhuth, "The Bigger the Better).
In order to find a compromise, some cities are now trying to impose design guidelines on bigbox development and to better incorporate the bigbox stores into their communities by, for example, making them more pedestrian-friendly.
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