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The closure of the big boxes may allow the little boxes -- locally owned stores -- to find their way back into the hearts of shoppers. GHOSTBOXES? Future of Closed Big Retailer Stores Clouds Local Economies
April 26, 2015
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Look around at the empty stores: Big box stores Target and Sears in Bay City have closed, putting hundreds out of work.
Hampton Mall with its once-bustling K-Mart is still a virtually empty shell as it has been for decades.
Business leaders are just waiting for the next shoe to fall.
However, research cited by national publications indicates there may be a silver lining in the dark clouds caused by big box closures.
The closure of the big boxes may allow the little boxes -- locally owned stores -- to find their way back into the hearts of shoppers.
Local governments now have both an economic incentive and a civic responsibility to find alternative uses for these big "ghostboxes," asserts Sarah Schindler in Colorado Law Review.
We've come almost full circle since 1962, when Wal-Mart, Target and K-Mart stores first all opened.
Journalist's Resource reports that big box retailers have been hurt by the recent financial crisis, the rise of Internet commerce and the increasing appeal of cities.
Wal-Mart's growth also may have had the effect of squeezing out the Targets, Sears and K-Marts of the world, research indicates.
Not only is Wal-Mart's rapid expansion in the 80's and 90's responsible for the 40-50 percent decline in the number of small discount stores, some researchers blame Wal-Mart for increased obesity of area residents, higher crime rates, lower overall employment at the county level and lower per acre tax revenues than mixed-used development.
Middle class jobs in manufacturing are being replaced by minimum wage jobs in retail, a trio of researchers wrote in 2014.
Another observer writing in Social Science Quarterly reported that her research found that within 15 months of a new Wal-Mart store entry into a local market, between 4.4 and 14.2 existing retail establishments close. Carlina Cochi "provides new and strong evidence that Wal-Mart's expansion has had a large impact on the employment situations of those working in retail."
A quartet of writers in Economic Development Quarterly in 2012 estimated that Wal-Mart's opening resulted in the loss of approximately 300 full-time equivalent jobs in nearby neighborhoods.
"A Wal-Mart-crime relationship exists," wrote Scott E. Wolfe and David C. Pyrooz in the British Journal of Criminology in 2014. "If Wal-Mart did not build in a county, property crime rates fell by an additional 18 units per capita from the 1990s to the 2000s," they wrote.
Results of another study cited in the Journal of Urban Economics "imply that the proliferation of Wal-Mart Super centers explains 10.5 percent of the rise in obesity since the late 1980s, but the resulting increase in medical expenditures offsets only a small portion of consumers' savings from shopping at Super centers." Researchers have linked the rise in obesity to technological progress reducing the opportunity cost of food consumption and increasing the opportunity cost of physical activity.
Wal-Mart's advancements in retail logistics have translated to substantial reductions in the prices of food and other consumer goods, assert Charles Courtemanche and Art Carden.
John C. Haltiwanger, writing in the National Bureau of Economic Research, cites a study that found "employment growth and survival of independent stores and smaller chains that operate in the same industry as big-box chains are negatively affected by the entry and growth of big box stores."
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sheridangabriel Says:
On April 30, 2015
at 01:18 AM
I am glad people are finally waking up to tje destruction of our central cities caused directlt by the Big Box madness.Shopping downtown Bay City was a joy with little stores,little restaurantspedestrian strolling,in short,everything that makes living in a city a delight.Now,our,central core hangs on becuase a few brave urbanites refused to give in.I say good ridance to all the malls and their endless parking lots,faux shopping stores,and controlled,parolled,corridors to nowhere.The best way to save a city is to give people walking in the city a chance to dwell on its history,architecture,chance encounters with weather and people.Variety,and good old fashion exercise,on foot. Count me at the top of the list of those saying good ridance to Mega Malls and Phoney Faux Shopping Experiences.
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