Big box:
A big box store is typically an inexpensive, large, one story, free-standing rectangular box with a large empty interior space that sits on a vast paved site that isolates itself from its surroundings.
Big box stores:
Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Wegmans, Bed Bath and Beyond, Ikea, Kroger, Staples.
Mall:
A collection of programs linked by pathways. These programs include retail, food, movie theatre, commercial, parking, etc.
Malls and big boxes are similar because they both have a variety of programs connected by a pathway system. As mentioned above, mall ‘programs’ include retail, food, movie theatre, commercial, parking, etc. Big box ‘programs’ can be described as their store sections: clothes, electronics, food, movies and entertainment, toys, etc. There are similarities in how big box stores and malls organize these programmatic elements and how they use pathways to connect these elements. For this reason, the case studies presented are both malls and big boxes.
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