So, I’ve been thinking about this whole issue of Big Boxes based on this post and I have two thoughts. I have to say as ugly and horrible as they are, big boxes do make a lot of sense from an environmental perspective (get everyone shopping in the same place less driving around), at least until we can retrofit every neighborhood in america to have businesses interspersed so that no one needs a car (yeah I expect that to happen soon too) so…

1. We redistribute them. We don’t restrict them, we just start restricting having too many in one place. While Lowes and Home Depot love competing right across the street from each other, is that something customers really need? This would put your PetCo next to your community center, and your Petsmart next to a church. It would be awesome for us pedestrians and bus riders, but it would suck for people who use cars (because ultimately we’d want to go to PetsMart and Target, but the Walmart is right across from the Petsmart and the Target is across from the Petsco).

2. So I started thinking about what really makes all these business as bad as they are. And the answer really is parking lots. You go to Houston and look at their Ikea and you’re struck by the fact that they have a covered walkway going through their parking lot into their store. Revolutionary! Who could have possibly thought of such an innovative safety feature! And yet with US companies we’d never see that. Even though most parking lots don’t even get close to full except during the holidays.
   And that brings up the solution. Why are all the buildings set back from the street, separated by a parking lot. Bus riders like me constantly have to walk across these vast swaths o’ concrete to get anywhere. And why? It doesn’t make any sense. All this corporate branding is hidden from the road. They have to build gigantor signs that generally get hidden by other gigantor signs, and yet you still can often pull into a parking lot next to one of those signs and have no clue how to find the store in question.
   I think that’s the answer then. We require stores to have their storefronts on the road. This would make it easy for pedestrians and public transit. Then they build covered walkways going from the parking lots to the front of the stores. The loading docks would be visible to the average customer which might be a dealbreaker, except that the stores could cover their usually blank back walls with advertising. It’s a win-win for everyone.