Click on James Howard Kunstler’s Clusterfuck Nation column and scroll down to the 6/25/07 entry. There’s a bar graph showing the U.S. has 20.2 square feet of retail space per person – compared to 3.3 square feet for the next-highest entry, Sweden. The UK – which practically invented Industrial Age retail commerce – has 2.5 sf, only 1/10 as much as the U.S.
Leaving aside Kunstler’s interpretation of the social/political/economic/environmental significance of this – why?! Why has so much more retail space been built in the U.S.? Goods here take up no more floor/shelf space than anywhere else, do they?
I would have to say (as a WAG) that perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we HAVE a lot more space than either the Brits or the Swedes (or the Japanese for that matter) do. They are a bit cramped over there, ehe?
Other than that…why does it matter? It seems to work well for us…as it seems to work well for them. What diff?
I go, primarily, with the “we use what we have” theory. Ever been in a supermarket in Europe? They are squeezing all the products they carry into buildings that may be 300 years old (or 55 years old built on 300 year old foundations) and they do not tend to “waste” any space.
Secondarily, but only slightly, would be simply the enormous product range that we enjoy (and build to suit). I suppose that one might find a 60’ run of shelves 6 feet high devoted to nothing but cookies and candy in Europe, but I am having difficulty picturing it, yet every store I visit in five neighboring towns has that or a similar layout. European stores tend to have the same diversity of product categories, but I do not recall them having the plethora of competing brands with identical products lined up next to each other.
As a side note, the graph is drawn to deliberately distort the claims. The 20.2 feet of U.S. usage is represented by 267 vertical pixels while the 2.2 feet of Italian usage is represented by 5 vertical pixels, giving the visual appearance that the U.S. has more than 64 times the square footage of Italy when, in fact, we actually use fewer than 20 times that area.
Ahh! You say, but we are looking at area, not length. Fine, taking into account the width of the bars, the U.S. is shown to have “only” 50 times the area, while the actual area remains one of fewer than 20 times.
I agree with almost all you posted, but I have a small quibble with the “diversity of products” on display. While I would certainly agree European supermarkets don’t offer nearly the amount of competing products by brandname, I daresay that the diversity (I am talking about the BIG supermarkets, and yes, there aren’t nearly as many par city and/or town as in the US either) is larger in those. The reason being rather simple…as we’re an open market, you’ll find stuff from 20 plus countries, many of which you probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize (“weird fruits” “strange meats/cold cuts” “bizarre fish” “never heard of drinks” etc.).
I had lots of fun asking the clerks to explain what some of those ‘things’ were – it’s almost like a museum visit. And I got to play the hick…for real
Much as it will probably knock you flat Red, I agree with you. The bigger markets I’ve seen in Europe (especially on the main land ) have a truly bewildering display of goods from all over the place…and they can be quite weird at times as well.
Though I think Tom was pretty close to the mark on the other stuff. I think it simply comes down to the fact that we HAVE more space generally. Our cities are younger, our buildings newer, and in general we are less cramped for space here. Our cities themselves tend to sprawl (no old defensive walls to keep the ravaging hordes at bay after all)…so our markets do too.
Astonished @ XT! But glad we can agree on something, even it’s just food.
Oh, and BTW, I am not saying that you couldn’t find most of that ‘stuff’ in the US. More than likely you would. But you’d probably have to go into ethnic neighborhoods that cater to a particular nationality (like the Prt Rican/Dominican ‘colmados’ in the Bronx), whereas, the major chains in the US carry mostly the same stuff whether you go to a market in Cal, NY or Fla. At least that’s been my experience.
But yeah, I couldn’t get over some of the stuff on display…would that I’d taken some pictures. Would’ve opened a “guess what the heck this is?” thread, see how smart you Dopers really are.
Well, there’s the matter of energy efficiency. A big supermarket costs a lot more to air-condition (or heat in winter) than a small one. That will matter more and more as the years go by. And the big footprint is accompanied by an even bigger parking lot, relatively few American retail centers being accessible otherwise than by automobile, and that will matter even more.
Only 300? Feh, in either “Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England” or “In Search of the Dark Ages,” Michael Wood talks of an English village with its shops built on ROMAN foundations!
Never mind. I knew something was bound to happen after agreeing with XT.
But kidding aside for a minute, here’s the sentence (taken in the context I took it in and ‘quibbled’ with)) that A-confused me or B-wasn’t very clear to begin with:
– highlights mine.
Yes, you then go on to say the “same diversity” bit…but if you have such an “enormous product range” how can that be?
True, but right now, this kind of thing is market-driven. The bigger a supermarket is, the less crowded it feels, and therefore, the more comfortable the patrons will feel, which will encourage them to shop there. Even if it’s more expensive to air-condition a larger store, this may easily be made up for by the amount of traffic it draws.
You have missed the point. Energy efficiency is not purely and strictly a bottom-line consideration. It has environmental and even strategic implications.
Oh, I didn’t miss your point. As I said, you are right about all of that. But my point was that until these issues reach critical mass, it IS a bottom-line consideration for businesses.
There is a market in the US for smaller grocery stores that don’t carry 10 different brands of everything, though. Trader Joe’s is a good example of this. One moved into part of an Albertson’s in my neighborhood, which is when I realized that Trader Joe’s stores usually aren’t as big as other grocery stores. The larger Albertson’s that used to be there was always deserted, but the Trader Joe’s is now mobbed (especially around 5pm- the checkout lines are almost as bad as the freeways). Trader Joe’s, as those of us who shop there know, only carries its own brand of stuff- there are no national brands, and there aren’t multiple brands of very similar items. Clearly, at least some Americans will shop at a smaller store with fewer brands of stuff to choose from.
Interesting…the Trader Joe’s I usually go to is pretty big. Its definitely not a small store a la the old fashion corner grocery store. It might not be as big as a Super Walmart or Sam’s Club, but its as big as the local Riley’s and World Market that I go too.
) have a truly bewildering display of goods from all over the place…and they can be quite weird at times as well.