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When big box retail came around, we weren’t forced to go there, we chose their selection, prices, and hours over the smaller stores that couldn’t successfully compete. They’re worse job creators but better at distributing stuff to the region.

Carrefour is one of the largest retailers on earth utilizing a big box model. They’re all over bedroom communities in suburban Paris.

> Carrefour is one of the largest retailers on earth utilizing a big box model.

In the 70s already, the one near Toulouse was for some time perhaps the largest superstore in the world (at least the largest in Europe).

I agree that it's weird that people want to live in places where there's nowhere to walk to and the landscape is houses with nearly no landscaping except for lawns and some shrubs. Not even trees - just a lawn desert of isolated homes. It's not even a cost thing in many cases as the homes are not cheap or small, etc.