I’m not sure what Krokodil is thinking of. I am sitting 1 block away from 11th and New York Ave. NW and the only things here are the old Greyhound bus terminal (now an office building) & defunct convention center.
There are no Wal-Marts, K-Marts or Targets in Washington DC. I think the rent is just too high for them to be able to move their merchendise at the prices people are used to seeing in such stores. We have Whole Foods & Giant grocery stores, Safeway and Home Depot.
Except for the Manhattan Mall.
The cart escalators I’ve seen at BB&B and Target are not movators as depicted on that link - there’s a moving series of prongs, rather than steps or a ramp, that engage the cart’s frame.
I found someone’s blog that has a collection of photos that give an idea of how these gizmos work. A little more Googling turns up a brand name: Cartveyor
But, back to large-scale shopping in San Francisco…
The Financial District is our high-density downtown area. Much like Manhattan, there are countless individual more-stylish-than-thou shops scattered around, a goodly collection of “flagship” stores, primarily in the Union Square shopping region, and a couple urban-style malls. The nine-story San Francisco Centre is perhaps the best-known of them, with Nordstrom occupying the top levels. Side note - the area around the SFC is undergoing a major rebuilding, and we’ll have a shopping center covering nearly an entire block with Bloomingdales as the major anchor in about two years.
Grocery stores are in the less-dense outerlying residential areas. For the most part, they’re severely condensed versions of what you’d find in suburbia. The Safeway near my home is only 9 aisles wide, whereas one in Daly City has 20 or more, and about twice as deep. The primary sacrifice is in variety of items, and smaller departments - the produce department, deli and bakery at the Daly City store are collectively larger than the entire San Francisco store.
Other than a Costco that was wedged into the SoMa area, we have no “big box” retailers - Things like Target, Home Depot are several miles away in a suburb. All of the Kmarts that used to be in the region have closed and the closest Wal Mart is 20 or so miles away.
Here’s their Yahoo! Yellow Pages entry:
Wal-Mart
Address: 1100 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 842-8426
I tried the phone number and no one picked up. I can’t account for the discrepancy. I will admit that I’ve never actualy been to this store and can’t swear it’s there.
The store locator on the Walmart website didn’t locate any stores in DC. Perhaps that address is for a Walmart office?
Actually, there are some movements to keep these things out (which of course means that they want to get in). Andersonville in Chicago has been going to great pains to keep a Target out while other neighborhoods are trying to get the big retailers to come in.
In the case of two Wal-Marts that were planned to be built in Chicago (one in the most populous if not dense neighborhood and another in a fairly dense area), local shopkeepers fougth with the aldermen about letting them in while the aldermen fought with each other about trading votes… Ultimately, one was OKd and the other nixed.
In terms of Washington DC, I can think of four shopping malls within the city itself (and more in the suburbs)…The Shops at Georgetown Park, Union Station, the Mazza Gallery, and the Chevy Chase Pavillion.
Relying once more on our friend Mr. Yahoo:
Benning Mall
4801 Benning Rd SE
Washington, DC
Federal Center Plaza
500 C St SW # 120
Washington, DC
Georgetown Park
3222 M St NW # 140
Washington, DC
L’Enfant Plaza
955 Lenfant Plz SW # 1208
Washington, DC Map
Mazza Gallerie Mall
5300 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC
Old Post Office Pavilion
1100 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC
Penn Branch Shopping Ctr
3202 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC
Shops At National Press Bldg
529 14th St NW # 570
Washington, DC
Union Station Management
40 Massachusetts Ave NE
Washington, DC
Some of these may not be “malls” per se, and at least two (Rhode Island Avenue Metro and Waterfront Mall) are not listed.
The other poster did have a location, so I have to include my 2 story target location. In Atlanta,(Buckhead) Across from Phipps Plaza and Lenox (Two Malls, about 100 yards from each other- but that’s for another time) there is a 2 story target, with an escelator for the carts.
But, This lacks in comparison to the Publix.
In the same Complex- 4 stories tall, parking in the center, Stores around the lot. The stores more or less are built into the parking ramp:
There is a Publix that relatively speaking, is well hidden. It is however well avertised. I have never been inside, but given its one story setting, and where the other structures are, I would guess its one half the size of a normal supermarket. (Then again, the target is right next door)
The malls and thus this complex, are right at the edge of Downtown Atlanta, which provides the same landscape demands (I.E. dont run out of gas near here)
A lot of office complexices (??) and Hotel chains, Starbucks/Newstands etc.
To expand on some of the differences, the supermarkets I’ve seen inside Tokyo don’t have carts, just handbaskets (or they have small cart frames you can set your handbasket in). The aisles are probably half the width (about the size of one American cart), and except for rice, most items are sold in sizes you could easily hold in one hand (no jumbo-sizes).