UBC Graduate Research

Unboxing America : the orientation of box stores and their sites Howell, Robert Don

Abstract

Box stores are a common fixture in rural and suburban American communities with commensurately large parking lots, often 2 to 3 times the size of the store. Recent online shopping trends and shifts in the retail landscape have placed pressure on these retailers to adapt to consumer demands such as product delivery directly to consumers and an increased online presence. Simultaneously, e-commerce companies like Amazon are looking to gain a stronger foothold in the market by expanding their physical store presence. The recent filings for bankruptcy by once prominent brick and mortar retailers have left thousands of box stores vacant throughout North America. These unoccupied structures can be a blight in the fabric of the community they once served. This project imagines the reorientation of a now vacated K-Mart in Utah, USA as a prototype for box stores as they adapt to accommodate local product distribution. It also envisions a re-urbanization of the site in order to benefit the community at large.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International