Why Big Box Stores Are Doomed, And What Might Replace Them

[@AdamSomething]

🔒Remove your personal information from the web at JoinDeleteMe.com/ADAM20 and use code ADAM20 for 20% off! DeleteMe international Plans: international.joindeleteme.com

[@CZpersi]

Look, who has discovered the perks of capitalism😂

[@feurigessiegelstuck233]

​@@CZpersigodforbid Adam has to make money

[@Hansalicious]

I ain't paying 7 dollars for that.

[@kapitan762x54R]

Your based community post got taken down. Because youtube loves facts just as much as america does.

[@chromedome7784]

7:02 I thought u had to censor license plates?

[@benoitterneyre5064]

You now see a rare and endangered species in its natural habitat: An Adam Something video that does not mention trains

[@yautl1]

I'm sure we can work trains in there somehow.

[@Jadegreif]

Shhsshh... you spook him....

[@mycosys]

I mean.... it was pretty strongly implied XD

[@ryanbauer3680]

Perhaps something about how they could be implemented by having a place where train could stop so there's a non car form of transportation the rest of the public can use?

[@antonisauren8998]

My local Lidl is closer than train station. :

[@SheeplessNW6]

Amazon said they'd use AI in their automated stores. They didn't tell you that this stands for "Actually Indians".

[@steemlenn8797]

Annoyed Indians.

[@PinkAgaricus]

@@steemlenn8797 lol...AVAI "Actually Very Annoyed Indians" would also be better like Annoyed Indians.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

IT in general is just indians on the phone

[@Capitanvolume]

Associates in india

[@dankdio2887]

as an indian, very true

[@GaryGoals]

What if somebody built a hypermarket on a flying pod, which can fly house to house in 25 seconds, but it also can be a boat and a submarine, and also carry 3 passengers up to 2 miles away through tunnels it digs itself. Also it goes to Space and can land on Saturn.

[@woodjohnn]

Elon, how’d you get in the comment section?

[@blackm4niac]

Don't give techbros any fucking ideas, bro!

[@Thiefnuker]

You had me at "pod".

[@Spacey_key]

will it be controled by AI?

[@FayeRantTheStrong]

Will it be compatible with hyperloop?

[@te-wei]

Here in Taiwan we have a perfect example. There's a semi-hypermall brand called RT-Mart, and the competitor PX-Mart took a strategy that "for every RT-Mart, we open 3~4 smaller local PX-Mart shops around it with proper distance", people can go to smaller PX-Mart within like 3~5 minutes, more easily to buy necessary things quickly, less walking range even in the shop. Eventually the company of the "smaller" PX-Mart tookover the "larger" RT-Mart.

[@bulukaki7063]

Oh yeah they were really convenient... When I was studying in Taiwan, the dormitory I stayed in was right across a PX mart. Walk a little further and there was the 7-11 where I picked up most of my online orders. Further down the road there were plenty of choices for food (便當，炒飯，滷肉飯，等等). All of those within 5 minutes of walking. The university was reachable by both bicycle and bus, and the restauranrt I worked part time in was reachable within 10 minutes of walking.

[@Neuzahnstein]

Small for every day and the larger one for weekly. More options

[@rtweugene1]

Mainland China is also like this. No doubt they ironically copied it from Taiwan and Japan as a better model for neighborhoods. Many of the convenience stores are originally Taiwanese or Japanese, such as 7/11, Family Mart, or Lawson, though Chinese brands like Lianhua are also increasingly competitive.

[@aleck7777777]

Sad Australian noises. Within 10 minutes of walking I can get to see about 40-50 houses. Repeat that 3 times and voila - a mall with all 3 supermarkets competing against each other, selling same products at the same prices. facepalm

[@backwardsbandit8094]

That honestly sounds baller. My only concern would be the massive corporate monopoly, but that's not the fault of the system itself in my opinion.

[@rjwohlman]

Dear Sir, I am an American.... We do NOT choose our elected leaders wisely.

[@TheReedsofEnki]

This one got a belly laugh from me! Someone did try to vote from the rooftops lately too.

[@TheCommunistGamerTV]

We hardly choose them at all.

[@Wuwei72-o5n]

You dont have choice.

[@ethanpowell2725]

We barely get a choice. 2 parties come together and say "which of these ancient boomers do you want lording over you?"

[@ILovePancakes24]

Stop electing the elderly and force all the young to vote.

[@Marlun42]

Adam: "It depends on the policies, so people will have to elect their leaders wisely." Me, an American: "Uh oh".

[@fajaradi1223]

And the options are ...

[@blub5117]

​@@fajaradi1223old and older.😂

[@Micha-qv5uf]

@@fajaradi1223 asylum patient vs nursing home inhabitant

[@soundscape26]

I don't think he was talking about presidents since those usually have more pressing issues to care about. It's more about regional and local politicians.

[@Marlun42]

@@soundscape26 Yeah, we don't really choose those wisely either.

[@Kimosabes2hot]

Brick and Mortar establishments are temporary, but the Spirit of Halloween is eternal.

[@baribari1000]

maybe the real treasure was the Spirit of Halloween we made along the way.

[@admechskitarii6967]

I love that their flagship store isn't even its own building, it's a repurposed Circuit City

[@Tentegen]

Yus

[@guillaumelagueyte1019]

Is Brick and Mortar a weird sequel to Rick and Morty?

[@gctypo2838]

@@guillaumelagueyte1019 No, that's Brick and Mordy from the Borderlands games.

[@suvajeetdatta1220]

My friend worked at one of those Amazon offices where he had to catalogue the items 'bought'. He has a computer science graduate who was hired for the job of 'automation engineering and ai training'. Turned out all he had to do was look at people shopping all day and type down what they took

[@crash.override]

Wild that they wasted a software developer on f-ing data entry!

[@Neuzahnstein]

@@crash.override because in amazone usa eyes he was cheap.

[@Micha-qv5uf]

@@crash.override If you know anything about India, that's not wild at all. They have more unemployed computer science graduates than many countries have inhabitants.

[@steemlenn8797]

Theoretically it would even be correct, if he was tagging data for the AI. But I guess he wasn't.

[@sanjeevdandin9350]

​@@crash.overridenah most of the designations and department names in Amazon India are bullshit does not reflect the actual work they do. Adding to that we have extreme levels of competition for proper SDE jobs in India. Amazon India jobs are considered sweat shops by many and even by SDEs.

[@lukemendel8197]

The Mall of America in the Twin Cities is, as far as I can tell, the only Mall that isn't death-spiraling. Mainly because it is a tourist attraction with a theme park in the middle, and it has a station on the bottom floor for the local light rail system.

[@Jorgec224]

The Galleria Mall in Roseville, CA seems to be going strong still when I go in for see's candy

[@coffeebuticed]

Ridgedale Center (aka mall) is also one of the strongest going malls I know of aside from MoA. It's not a tourist attraction like MoA, but the main thing that keeps it going? It's just a really good place to hang out while also shopping. A great variety of stores imo, and plenty of places to eat from snacks, fast food options and actual sit down restaurants, and the aesthetic isnt mall from the early 2000s which helps a lot. Plus even outside of the mall, there's grocery stores and a Best Buy across the street so there's already plenty of people that are in the area, so attracting people to come isn't too hard either.

[@tristanridley1601]

West Edmonton Mall too. Same reasons.

[@GoErikTheRed]

South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa California is also doing pretty well. I regularly see the (very large) parking lot quite full. A large portion of the mall is occupied by very high end stores. Think Gucci and Prada. I imagine those places are pretty stable. Most of the foot traffic is still for forever 21, Nordstrom, the Lego store, restaurants, etc

[@XyatuX]

I went to the MoA once (as a tourist) and it seemed... weird. It was decently full and it seemed HUGE but there wasn't really a lot of variety to the shops. Also a lot of brands actually had 2 or 3 identical shops placed across the mall. You could probably cut the size by half and the place would still be too big.

[@MrBigChungus95]

Good morning. I hate car-centric infrastructure

[@MR-mb2sg]

I agree, the Mexican staring frog from southern Sri Lanka

[@railroadforest30]

Agreed

[@adiamond563]

same here

[@Skullfiend]

Took 30 years for my town to get a Mall. And aside from the Cinema, and the Gym there... It's basically empty. Lots of stores that were never opened. Trapped behind white-painted Wood pannels.

[@FundamentallyFlawed]

They recently demolished a large mall here in Seattle. It used to be packed all of the time, but it started turning into a ghost town. They replaced it with a mixed-use area containing open air shopping and residential space.

[@dianevanderlinden3480]

@@FundamentallyFlawed funny how we're going back to a dowtown/town square type model.

[@pseudonym745]

Deem yourself lucky. In my town we are currently sitting through our 4th mall in 30 years which is as empty as the pockets of the investors...HAHAHAHAH just kidding...😅

[@Posiman]

In a Prague neighborhood called Letná the locals long protested against a new shopping mall. They built it. And it's been a dead mall since day 1. The grocery store is the only part that people visit. I've only been there twice, because there is an ATM inside and the other ATM was too far away...

[@smalltime0]

@@FundamentallyFlawed That sounds really nice

[@ravenwarjoy]

Imagine if, on the footprint of a hypermarket, you had built a residential area with ground floors of all the buildings being dedicated commercial spaces. Instead of having one everything store, each store would be a dedicated store, like a grocery or a print shop or a toy store, and because you no longer need a gargantuan parking, because people live in walking distance of these now, you could probably fit in even more business in there than there was in the hypermarket.

[@ThunderDraws]

sounds like berlin 🤔

[@TheGregcellent]

Behold, the pedestrianised high street

[@Aval0n_]

I've been seeing lots of buildings like this pop up in the general Seattle area i.e. Red160 apartments in Redmond. I love them, they feel way more cozy to shop at than visiting big box stores or one-story strip malls. Particularly because the areas around them tend to be designed to be more walkable.

[@GizzyDillespee]

That would make the store items cost even more than at hypermarkets. People will order from thousands of miles away, rather than downstairs, if it saves them a buck.

[@hamobu]

Imagine that! Then each of these stores would need it's own distribution, supply chain, payroll etc. But that's okay, instead of serving tens of thousands of people, they would serve few hundred that live locally. Who needs to load up a cart full of goods to buy groceries for couple of weeks when you can shop three times a week, walking from store to store with bags of stuff, and waiting in line to pay five times for one shopping trip.

[@thespanishinquisition4078]

"The hypermarket is doomed" *EVERYBODY LIKED THAT* Sometimes the future's HYPE AF

[@tomasbeltran04050]

optimism is scarce nowadays

[@AceH.-jk5kn]

but i like malls :(

[@LeafHuntress]

I didn't. I prefer the term Hypermarché. So: Hypermarchés are f*cked, hell yeah! (it's how i learnt of those things, on holiday in France, because my country doesn't really have them)

[@daznis]

They are not. They have a lobby group in EU. Which every supermarket is part of. And about a decade ago, they all started fixing prices all over Europe. Literary that's why almost all the southern part of my country went to Poland to buy groceries as they had 0% VAT(21% in my country) on it. That literary included produce made in my country, which were cheaper then even if I added the VAT. And I'm no including alcohol here, which is 1/2 of what is here + Poland doesn't have a deposint system, so if you Buy Lithuanian bear +10c per bottle. ;)

[@tomasbeltran04050]

@@AceH.-jk5kn malls are good if integrated in a city with good walkability and housomg

[@Leonardo-G]

"Speaking of rent, allow me to pay mine. This video is sponsored by DeleteMe" goes hard

[@151monka]

Agreed. Adam' humor is good. 😁👌

[@bubandlisa]

Deleteme .. GIVE US YOUR DATA ... to get rid of your data

[@151monka]

@@bubandlisa yeah, not the best idea, lol

[@nob2243]

@@bubandlisa Yeah, but how would they request data brokers to delete someone's data otherwise?

[@FranciszekTryburcy]

DeleteMe kinda seems like a hitman service

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

As a Dutchman, I do sometimes appreciate a big store if not a hypermarket. But mostly when I bike to Germany to see what weird shit they have that we don't.

[@deinemudda1049]

And as someone living in Germany I just love to go to Dutch supermarkets and even open air malls by bike, without feeling like an absolute moron.

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

Like a zoo but for stuff you can buy.

[@MaticTheProto]

We have the good weird shit 🗿🇩🇪

[@larrywest42]

"bike to Germany" 🤩 - _appropriately impressed southern Californian_

[@Atlas552]

Also as a Dutchman, there's two types of big stores I like: DIY stores and German alcohol stores.

[@martytu20]

The malls and hypermarkets that still survive and thrive are also transit hubs and pedestrian focused. It becomes a community hub for high schoolers and college students to hang around.

[@ChineseKiwi]

aka Australian malls! Which are thriving because they are A) Integrated into the neighbourhood B) they are public transport hubs C) Have the actual one stop of everything, being supermarkets, retail and entertainment options like your cinema and restaurants. Our local neighbourhood malls and online is doing plenty fine too.

[@Jakeio-w9j]

@@ChineseKiwi and having them in the suburbs means most of our suburbs are pretty walkable, apart from the newer ouuter ones :)

[@thomashajicek2747]

Maybe 20 years ago...

[@SIMULATAN]

The main problem with hypermarkets is that they don't have accompanying train stations.

[@vylbird8014]

Notable exception: Calais has a massive store that sells booze. Huge amounts of booze of every type, but especially wine. It is built there because of the train station - specifically the channel tunnel, through which huge numbers of Brits arrive to enjoy the much lower alcohol taxation rate of France and load up their cars until the axles creak. Before the tunnel they used to do the same thing through the ferry - traditionally known as the Booze Cruise.

[@coreyhipps7483]

It is fairly frequent in some larger European and Asian cities to have these directly tied to transit. When directly tied to transit they tend to be pretty lively places where people shop on their way to other destinations, or are just a convenient place to get to.

[@connordarvall8482]

There's Box Hill Central in Melbourne (Australia) but all the shops bar the McDonald's are inaccessible from the station unless you feel like buying a second train ticket Really useful if you're initially departing/arriving at Box Hill. Similar story to Ringwood, Melbourne Central and Greensborough.

[@theevilmoppet]

Just to add an American example, Block 37 in Chicago is a 1-block-square mall that also serves as one of only two transfer points between our two most used rail lines (Red and Blue), and the other transfer point is long and awful so it barely counts. It also sits under a massive residential tower and 1 block from the Loop, an elevated rail circle that carries the other 5* metro lines (Green, Brown, Orange, Pink, and Purple). *there is technically a 6th other metro line. It is called the yellow line; it runs through 3 stops in Skokie, a northern suburb, connecting to the northern terminus of the red line (which is also the off-peak southern terminus of the purple line), and is an absolute joke, carrying less people than the worst of America's light rail systems. The trains are two cars long. It doesn't count.

[@psittacus7178]

@@connordarvall8482 In Adelaide some brain genius decided to build Costco and shopping centre *directly between* two stations on the *same* line

[@GabrielPettier]

Yeah, in the Netherlands, as most people, i can walk 3 minutes in one direction to an Albert Heijn, or 3 minutes in another one for a Jumbo, both having all the groceries i could need, and walk back with what i need for the week in a bag, i can take public transportation to Ikea, in like 30mn, look at things, and then order them online for delivery, i can take my bike or transports (or even walk if i don't mind the round trip taking 1h) to get into a shopping center (which looks more like a block with more stores than usual, than a shopping mall), and get all the extra stuff i could need (and same, i can find another one pretty much the same distance in a different direction). Car free life is easy with the proper infrastructure!

[@Paco1337]

My guy, Netherlands is flat…too flat and its walkable. For example my city is “mountainy” and driving a bike is horrible experience

[@dematrsinba4361]

Meh, Netherlands doesn't provide all the goods you need in their shops, there is no choice for a specific product (you get at most 2 variation) and in general food quality sucks, and I have been living in the Netherlands for years

[@GabrielPettier]

@@dematrsinba4361 well, maybe i have simple taste, but i'm pretty happy with what i find in the various grocery shops, if i don't find what i need in AH or Jumbo, there are other places like Ekoplaza, to complete the offer, and i don't need a thousands variation of each products, for most things, 2-3 versions is plenty. For food quality, i disagree, sure they are not great cooks, but the produces are fine, you just have to do the cooking yourself.

[@fanshi5302]

does ​your city has 50 degree inclines on every corner? hills aren't a problem, go out and get used to them. @@Paco1337

[@gyorgygajdos1657]

What a patriotic lie. Loads of stores , retail parks in the middle of nowhere in the Netherlands. Food stores are everywhere in Europe inside of cities easy access by foot.

[@Pety91]

Lidl: You go for the parkside tools and accessories, you didn't even know you needed, but for that price, its gonna be useful one day! 😅😂

[@orthodox-mp6hv]

Kaufland too, there's a whole isle for Parkside in my town's Kaufland.

[@missalice557]

Thank god I'm not the only getting swept in by the Parkside aisle every time I go to Liddl. I bought an electric scrub brush, car wiper and staple gun just last week 😂

[@orthodox-mp6hv]

@@missalice557 I was eyeing the chainsaw and power drill. I haven't given in yet.

[@adamcako5281]

Middle aged dads in all of Europe rushing to get the latest Parkside Battery Scrotumtwister (Whatever it's cheap, might be useful later)

[@unclenogbad1509]

True. I once wandered in for just continental cheeses and ham (I'm from UK), and came out with an angle grinder. What the Hell, it was reduced and has proven extremely useful.

[@cookiewriter4001]

I work at Rewe in Leipzig as a delivery driver. You order online. Your order gets picked in a warehouse. We load it in our vehicles and drive it to you. Its amazing for older/disabled people living on the 4th ot 5th floor with no elevator. Even families use this method so they dont have to drag their crying children around a store for 45min. A usual route can range from 18 to 28 customers (depends on demand and the distance we have to travel). And all I can think about is: 18-28 less cars on the road. The downside is I have to carry 4 cases of bottled water up 8 flights of stairs in 35 degree heat. But I do think this concept will be the future. Of course we still need normal stores but I think we can downsize them a lot. Switzerland has the "Coop Pronto" which carries much less variety but you can get everything you need for your breakfast or a dinner. Then when you need specific stuff you order online. That way you could fit a " Rewe" into much smaller spaces and distances could decrease. You could still get a quick snack during lunchbreak, and wont get held up by families of 5 buying a month worth of groceries. Costs of heating or cooling would decrease as well. Those small stores could be restocked by vans instead of sending huge trucks through the middle of a city.

[@IRosamelia]

I lived in Frankfurt for a couple of months and got addicted to the Rewe's salad bar ❤

[@chalibard3826]

Yeah Migrolino and Coop Pronto are our take on the convenience store, but they only exist as gas stations or inside train stations as it's the only way to open after 7pm or the sunday by law. It sure motivate people to keep the rail in the town.

[@TheRealE.B.]

The thing that immediately comes to mind for me is packaging. In the U.S., online delivery involves a TON of packaging waste that doesn't exist in a traditional brick-and-mortar store. One Amazon addict who lives alone needs the same trash can as a family of five because of all the boxes and bubble wrap they throw away. Also, all of the delivery trucks parking on sidewalks that aren't strong enough to have delivery trucks parked on them. Sort of a microcosm of the "let's ship via truck instead of train because the government pays for roads" problem.

[@Novusod]

Bottled water is the world's dumbest product. It didn't even exist before the 1970s because nobody thought people would be dumb enough to buy water in a bottle. Just buy a reusable bottle and drink the water from your faucet like a normal human being. The water in those bottles is just faucet water from a different city.

[@oliphant2848]

@@TheRealE.B. German Rewe doesn't seem to have this problem. I used their online & delivery shopping for a while when I was laid up at home with a slipped disk, and the only packaging they used were large brown paper bags.

[@kevinxu3892]

Yeah the parking lots of malls in our areas are so consistently empty that they’re now being rented out as fair grounds or motorcycle training schools

[@dashmeetsingh9679]

Just one question : why multi level parking isnt built? It cant be costlier than the land which was purchased for parking?

[@kevinxu3892]

@@dashmeetsingh9679multilevel parking, in our area of the US is built when there is high demand or people usage of a dense area, such as an office tower or movie theater Most local malls, especially ones in suburbia not connected to city transit, have not transitioned to model that currently demands high levels of people density activities, and thus it’s easier to make money on their plot of by renting out the empty land rather than spend money on constructing and maintaining a multilevel garage that would have low usage, outside of perhaps shelter for the unhoused and delinquent hangout

[@thomashajicek2747]

In the US they're being filled up with unsold Teslas.

[@wesleyem3]

Meanwhile, in America, they're demolishing malls just to add more apartments and retail stores... With roads that are 2 lanes wide surrounding them.

[@jintsuubest9331]

2 lane? You need more lane to account for the future traffic. I purpose 4 lane with spaces for 2 more lane in the future. You are not thinking like an American traffic engineer.

[@musicwolf9279]

@@jintsuubest9331 Nahhhhh we just need pods that will fix everything

[@WaffleAbuser]

@@musicwolf9279Good thinking, and we can make the pods really big (bigger=more epic), maybe even chain multiple of them together. And what if we put the pods on some sort of metal guideway

[@nokedili]

9:59 "lidl shall rule all" i say as i walk into aldi with my lidl socks & slippers on

[@cube_2593]

Ah Yes, the local lidl with the middle aisle where you get Computers, Chainsaws? Inflatable Pool Toys, bootleg lego and a canoe. A truly remarkable Place

[@dakinademino977]

If only the staff knew what 'restocking' means.

[@MichaelSheaAudio]

The part about how hot parking lots get is made worse as a food delivery driver. Until we get a request, we gotta park up near popular restaurants and wait. It gets pretty hot sitting in a parking lot when all you've got is the shade of a little 10ft tree, that is if all of the spots under said trees aren't taken. If we're gonna have these parking lots, we need more and bigger trees, bro. 😭

[@greghenrikson952]

In the US, there's a significant difference between *supermarkets* and indoor malls. Supermarkets continue to be a major part of the economy, and while there has been some decline in some oversaturated areas, they remain the primary if not exclusive source for food and essentials. The supermarket sector is strong and growing. But the mega-malls of the 70's through the 2000's are almost all dead and dying. Taking the anchors with them. This may be different from the "hypermarkets" of Europe. For one thing, grocery supermarkets started in the US a long time ago so there is no living tradition of greengrocers and such outside a handful of urban areas. So your Rewe is a grocery supermarket, and in the US would have almost nothing in common with the mega-malls. Grocery stores sometimes showed up as anchors for small malls (most of which have now switched inside-out), but I never saw one for the mega-malls. Those spots were for the likes of the now-defunct department stores. US department stores are a whole different topic as well, going back to the late 19th century. Again, probably different in Europe.

[@greghenrikson952]

TL;DR--Walmart is not "the mall" in the US. It's a discount/grocery store that ATE THE MALL.

[@unconventionalideas5683]

I should point out that in many rural areas and much of the US, there is much more of a living tradition of greengrocers than you would imagine. Even in 2014, the largest share of US grocers were independent, mom-and-pop style operations; 37,000 existed at that time, approximately double the number of virtually any fast food chain except for Subway (which still had fewer locations). So greengrocers, while not a thing in the suburbs, remained a thing in much of the country and are starting to return in urban areas which had lost them, sometimes combined with coffee shops or other sorts of installations like that to help drive sales.

[@katrinabryce]

In Europe, the big out of town supermarkets are being replaced with smaller local "Express" stores, eg Tesco Express or Carrefour Express. Tesco tried that out in the US with Fresh&Easy, but it failed. Maybe Walmart who actually understand the US market could do a better job.

[@johnladuke6475]

Yeah, I notice Adam also seems to conflate "big box store" with "Wal-Mart Supercenter". Home Depot is a big-box store but most definitely does not sell all of your needs such as clothing and groceries under one roof.

[@greghenrikson952]

Thinking more about this, the infamous mega-malls were mostly the product of post-war real estate developers looking to make money off the (then) cheap land of booming suburbs. So the people who designed and built the mega-malls were not the same as the people running the actual stores at the malls. Which may explain why so many failed. I don't think Europe ever had the same expanses of cheap land, or laws lax enough to let people build absurdly huge box structures on them.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

there's a potential future for the hypermarket in "After The Revolution", a novel by one of the guys behind Behind The Bastards. depicts a hypermarket building housing a community garden, a couple of bars, and moderately secure shelter for a few hundred refugees. until (spoiler alert) the religious faction of the former US shell it

[@almisami]

The original concept for the Mall had 5 floors of residential space above the floors of retail space.

[@robertmarley9380]

@@almisamimixed-use housing with extra steps. Hang on, corporate-owned mixed-use housing? Smells like company towns :/

[@StreamlineDeet]

@@almisami My university has a mall with several floors of student dorms above it. It's a really nice building. The one problem with it is that it is very crowded, especially in the winter. It's the only real indoor route between the subway/bus station, and the Humanities and Business buildings. Unless you want take the really long way through the science buildings, which involves either going up and down several flights of stairs, or going outside anyways. And since our winters hit -40C, you really want to avoid going outside sometimes.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

@@StreamlineDeet Canadian Prairie city, yes?

[@arsmariastarlight3567]

Let me tell you a story about how a big hypermarket dies in my place I'm an Asian, and there's a big hypermarket near where I live. When I was a kid, during 1990s, that place is basically the only big supermarket in the city. People go there to buy food, clothes, furniture, books, and even just having fun, nearly everything you need, you can get there. The hypermarket is a massive three-story building, and it's parking lot is almost always full during it's opening hours. It's also located just a few blocks away from a traditional market, which is much smaller in size As the city grows and develop in the span of 20+years, more and more people come to the city, and the population grows. Farmers grow their crops on the outskirts of the city, before selling their harvest to the traditional market. As my district is also bordering on coastal area, fisherman also come to the traditional market to sell their catch. As more and more people selling on the traditional market, the prices dropped significantly, and the hypermarket cannot keep up with the ever-dropping price, there's simply no competition Over time, the traditional market grows larger and larger, while the hypermarket grows smaller and smaller. At first, the third floor was blocked off, then the second floor, then some of the section of the first floor being sold to neighboring retail store (basically just walling off the section inside from the rest of the supermarket). Nowadays, people mainly go to the traditional market. The hypermarket of the past now only has ground floor, with a footprint of a quarter of what it used to be. The only thing they're selling now is clothes, the only commodity where they hold actual edge compared to nearby traditional market (which mostly sells food). People barely remember it being a hypermarket of the past

[@Zuzu00000]

Why did they just block off the second and third floors? Couldn't they have also rented that space out? Or have I misunderstood Either way, I'm glad your town was able to move away from the hypermarket stuff. Speaking as an American, those things will never work very well for a community, no matter how glorious the Costco Milk Room may feel

[@arsmariastarlight3567]

​@@Zuzu00000 The second and third floor is mainly for entertainment and food court As the traditional market flourish, people prefer cheaper food there, either buying ingredients directly so they cook the meal themselves (which is much cheaper), or buying from street vendors (which is still much cheaper). Over time, the lack of visitors on hypermarket food court led food sellers there to end their contract early because of unsustainable business (high rent cost but sparse customers) As for the third floor, it's for entertainment (arcade, bumper cars, toys, cinema, etc.). Sparse visitors led to the place look deserted, which makes the entertainment section looks unappealing (imagine you go on an amusement park with only 1 or 2 people there, which makes it very creepy, unsettling and lacking other people's presence The maintainance and electricity cost for the second and third floor is not cheap. With the lack of visitors, the hypermarket actually takes a loss and rarely making any profit due to the need of maintaining non-profiting floors, so they decided to just shut down all facilities there and block it off (and they can't rent it anyway, the rent price is still too high for most people when most of the goods can be bought for much cheaper price in the traditional market anyway)

[@Pixl8dwhmsy]

“BuyNLarge, our favorite brand.” 🎼

[@kyleshape8645]

Easily one of the best movies ever made.

[@DulceN]

You seem to be mixing the terms ‘big box’ and ‘shopping mall’, which here in the USA are very different things. Shopping malls, those expansive, usually one storey buildings with a multitude of shops inside, are pretty much a thing of the past and are now abandoned pieces of real estate in most cases. On the other hand, what are called big boxes such as the WalMart superstores, or home centers like Lowe’s or The Home Depot, are thriving and show no sign of decline, due to their practicality and convenience.

[@katrinabryce]

In the UK, the terms are "retail park", and "shopping centre". Shopping mall is understood as an alternative term for shopping centre.

[@Iceykitsune]

And then you have the strip mall, which is a long building with multiple retail units, each of which has their own exterior door.

[@thomashajicek2747]

Big Box isn't just lowes and home depot. It's also Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond and the like that are dying or dead.

[@benjaminsente7430]

Just watching your Video... in Chemnitz. Biking in Chemnitz is like a Mountain Tour. You definetly want to avoid all the f-ing ascents. Had to learn that the hard way. When I first tried to get to Neefepark, wich is only 5 km away from my place, I ended up at the edge of the city (south-east). By back tracking I endend up in between fields and summer houses. All because I had to avoid entering the autobahn (the shortest and direct route, but not suitable for a bike). In the end I found the right path by accident.

[@genosho5574]

I assume you came from outside of Chemnitz? Because the Commercial Corpse know as the "Neefepark" resides within the city limits and you shouldn't need to cross the Autobahn to get there.

[@benjaminsente7430]

@@genosho5574 No, I came from within the City. Just try for yourself.

[@lm25071]

6:45 is the often sad reality in Germany, if you want to go somewhere by bike and avoid main streets that are bad for bikes but labelled as the official bike route 😢

[@thomasbergfeld2730]

It depends in what city in Germany you live. Freiburg or Göttingen are Bike Friendly. Hannover is designed for Car traffic. In General medium sized University cities with 30.000-120.000 are Bike and Public transit friendly. New made towns like new Berlin Suburbs are designed SUV friendly.

[@andrewslejska4205]

I always thought those parking lots would make great residential spaces. Keep the main building maybe government services can rent the old anchor locations for services. Hopefully they dont go full skyscraper though. If people complain there is nowhere to park they can pay for it, used transit or move there.

[@layelee]

Idk about skyscraper but here in my country definitely mixed-use highrises is the future. Big box stores like Loblaws and Canadian Tire are spinning off their real estate holdings in to separate companies called Real Estate Investment Trusts because at this point their real estate is almost more valuable than their actual business, and they are in areas that are currently slated to be densified. The next obvious step is for those Real Estate Investment Trusts to develop those properties with high rises that incorporate the big box stores in the retail levels. The properties are too valuable, and cost way too much in property tax, not to sell or rent off the space in the parking lot and above the store.

[@Micha-qv5uf]

Also imagine how much energy you could produce if you'd simply install solar panels over EVERY parking area...

[@Dap1ssmonk]

@@Micha-qv5ufless than you’d think, and not worth the massive investment and the environmental damage that disposing of solar cells entails. A better idea would be to hook it all up to a thorium reactor. Solar is a meme outside of small amounts of supplemental power or hot, sunny, cloudless areas.

[@looper7159]

There’s a big mall on one side of the town where I live - most of the big chain stores have moved out but instead of becoming a dead mall it’s currently inhabited by a lot of small businesses, mom and pop shops, and interesting attractions like an interactive aquarium, good restaurants and a cat cafe. I love it and it feels like the good ending to me

[@Speyde]

Can't wait for the new Idea of the Future, Pod Markets :)

[@ClemensKatzer]

made by Elon?

[@Feanarth]

Introducing the Hyperpodmart - a giant underground store* on rails that frequents the city in a large circle. No more parking and walking required, the store comes to you! * Will be finished in 2134 when we have all the excavation permissions.

[@thomasbergfeld2730]

In japan there are mobile makets which drive to the eldery who live in old new towns on hills which were made in the 70ties. There the access to supermarkets became difficult, as all residents, who moved in at the same time became old and inmobile.

[@person0192]

The heatwaves are no joke, where I live we’ve been having a heat wave for basically the entire month

[@jeremygregorio7472]

I kind of stopped going for 90% of things because when I go they just don't have what I went there for. They're so under stocked on anything but the most obvious things that sell to the most obvious people. For that kind of stuff I'm going to pick it up at a handful of grocery stores. For clothing I'm stuck buying it online if I want what I want because it's just not available

[@Wolftatze]

Its amazing how supermarkets just have no register online of what is actually in stock. Like, that wouldn't be hard to automate, would it? Saves you a trip to see what they actually have.

[@Veylon]

@@Wolftatze They don't want to promise something and then not have it when you show up to get up. They barely know what they have themselves.

[@annabonnet6873]

@@Wolftatzeit is actually super hard to maintain a system like this Usually they update the internet stock once a day, because otherwise it would be almost impossible to keep up with all the sales happening in real time

[@jooseppib1082]

I usually buy clothes from Lidl on discount. The rest of what I wear is just protection clothes for work anyway

[@Wolftatze]

@@annabonnet6873 see, that is what I don't understand. Is it that hard to implement a system that takes stock of the wares when they get in the market, and deduce them right at the cashier when the financial transaction is complete? Maybe I am stupid, but it sounds easy to me to just hook up the cash registers to the market database.

[@dantetre]

7:25 "104 Burgers" :D

[@cheese7119]

xD

[@SanderEvers]

Maybe they should build stores in trains. I think that it would be awesome so you can shop while you travel.

[@robs.2671]

In the US, we tried that. We even had bars on a good majority of the trains in NYC at one point in the 20th century. And while that in particular didn't work out for reasons you might expect, the stores on trains concept also failed because ridership on lots of train routes isn't profitable outside of the high traffic areas. There's simply not enough people willing to buy a ticket and then pay $9.99 for a train sandwich

[@uncipaws7643]

They tried it in Switzerland. After the McDonald's restaurant car experiment failed two of the cars were rebuilt to "coop railshop". You could get snacks and drinks for your trip but also groceries for home. After a couple of years operating in regular trains it disappeared again.

[@CatWithoutAHat901]

There was something similar in germany, I remember I think 2021 Deutsche Bahn and Rewe started a supermarket on rails and in 2023 a supermarket in a bus. I've never heard of either of them again, I don't think it stood it's ground.

[@noneofyourbusiness4830]

This means that all those supermarket goods have to be carried around by train all the time. That's a lot of weight to spend fuel/electricity on, when the goods could have just, you know, stood there in a normal supermarket.

[@JBG1968]

Many Japanese train station are almost shopping malls in themselves . Many shops and restaurants and big department stores at the big stations .

[@bakedpretzels1378]

Ive never heard someone use "burgers" to refer to fahrenheit but it got me lmao

[@Con-Pin-]

My Neighbours: Drive to the Gym to cycle for an hour and then go back home Me: Cycles 30min both ways

[@Smile200-z4y]

W

[@Vodkanir]

nobody with a working brain spends time better done doing cardio, to go to a gym where they then only do cardio

[@Ricecooker112]

It sucks that you’re forced to workout to get anywhere, especially on days when the weather isn’t pleasant

[@Ricecooker112]

It sucks that you’re forced to workout to get anywhere, especially on days when the weather isn’t pleasant

[@Vodkanir]

@@Ricecooker112 never said he was forced to, if that's what you're implying. good cope though

[@christophzeiner697]

I personally saw an eldery men carried away in an emergency vehicle, because he collapsed on the sidewalk on the way to a hardware store, at 70 to 80% humidity and 36 celsius the entire day.

[@bastiaan7777777]

But did he eventually got to the hardware store to buy the airconditioning?

[@goldcoin2444]

To be fair, hardware stores really need to be big box stores as they double as lumber yards. Without a truck, how are you gonna get an 8'x20' piece of plywood to your dear camp?

[@tash4270]

You brought up a brilliant point, as someone without a car, the height of COVID was HELL on a stick! Everywhere expected you to drive there, there wasn't any option for those of us on foot for many things in my area and it made it really rough.

[@Walterbgaming]

We got one of those here in The Netherlands and it's hilarious how whenever i go there, which is rare the MASSIVE parking lot is always like dead there's maybe 10% of the space actually being used, the stores there barely have people in them and theres like 30 stores there. Now go to a smaller city with a Dirk in the middle of a residential area and that place is PACKED at all times

[@Tanker-1651mkf]

All Hail Lidl

[@crimsondragon2677]

“… and rents weren’t sky high. Speaking of which, allow me to pay mine.” Best sponsor transition ever.

[@Parciwal_Gaming]

I live in germany and have 2 main options for shopping (there are 2 more, but one is an hour by bike and one doesn't have the selection we want). On is a Lidl with a good selection of baked goods and snacks (is relatively close to a school, so it gets good usage out of them) but it is missing a lot of things we normally need for making (lunch/dinner, idk what the correct translation is... Dinner sized meal at 12-13 o'clock), so we go a bot further, maybe 5 minutes further away with a bike, an go to Edeka and Aldi (Supermarkets). They are next to each other together with a bank, post office, a rossman, DM and a few smaller businesses that benefit from the location. The only hypermart I know takes one hour per bike to get to, has huge halls and the main attractions are a cinema and the closest Deichmann to me.

[@notwhatitwasbefore]

Ah the is it called lunch or dinner question. I'm sorry to inform you the answer is Yes. Both can be right or wrong depending on who your talking to and there's just no way to know until they look at you like your stupid or something. Due to French being the language of the upper class for a lot of English history Dinner (déjeuner) is more likely the correct option when talking to upper class southern people but... Dinner normally means the biggest meal of the day that can be in the middle of the day or in the evening (never Breakfast even if the biggest meal is breakfast), This does mean many people have Dinner at lunch time and then tea at Dinner time. Not to be confused with tea time which is for afternoon tea (3:30pm to 5:00pm) but some people will say they are having Dinner at tea time and they probably mean after 5:00pm. Theres something to do with working people not being able to have a big meal at midday so you'd think it would be class thing but I went to a state run school (don't get me started on how we name our private schools public shools) and it was dinner break when we had lunch. Its actually worse than that once you include the north/south stuff and that most Brits haven't got a clue either so may just use a term like Scran or Grub or maybe even Chow all of which can be paired with the word Time and could be used to describe any meal or snack. You know what I'm going to give learning German another try because this is Kuddelmuddel

[@TheCuriosity8]

Australian here, I live 500m away from a supermarket and mall. I still get all my groceries delivered. They massively upgraded since COVID, and it is now so cheap and convenient I can sometimes even get them delivered the same day. Categories and search functionality make it much easier to find what I want and get the specials. If I buy enough food for 1 person for 2 weeks it's free. Or, a $7 USD monthly sub makes it always free if I buy $25 USD of stuff. I'm getting fresh food at my door twice a week, I could never bear to dive into a wall of shelves that often

[@maxfi878]

The malls in North America are dying because of online shopping and simply being oversized for the customer base. But malls in Europe and big box stores on both continents are still alive and well.

[@leonzeltser1645]

1:32 needs an award for the best ad segue

[@duddledeedo]

Hypermarkets are still very much alive and thriving in Asia. The main difference is you can reach them mainly by foot as they are connected to underground train stops like in Hong Kong and Singapore. And for the most part you don't have to step a foot outside in the heat to reach them.

[@ateyygmd]

I'm Hungarian and I regularly have to stop by a big box Lidl every week. When I was last there, I almost ended up getting a heat stroke because it was 37°C and the black asphalt didn't help either.

[@xassix]

Dammit. Now Im afraid of Aldi turning into an evil megacorporation like Amazon.

[@jointgib]

hi i used to work for them but i can't really say anything because it was probably in my contract

[@Micha-qv5uf]

1. Aldi already is a megacorporation. 2. They are probably not more or less evil than any other supermarket chain.

[@mittfh]

@@xassix Unlike their main German discounted rivals Lidl, they haven't (yet) succumbed to the temptation of introducing a loyalty card to harvest customer data under the guise of providing customised savings...

[@thomasbergfeld2730]

Aldi has just about 270.000 employees in 18 countries (data: 2022), so it is not a megacorporation like amazon yet😆

[@themroc8231]

I live in Buenos Aires which has kept an incredible network of small retail businesses, like around 500 meters around my house there are maybe 50 general food retail stores. In that same radius i have maybe 8 shoe repair shops, 5 or 6 schools, lots of clothing retail, a cheap shirt maker, a luxury one... It' s to the point that if I need to move I can go to one of the 2 "cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, packing material, etc." little family owned stores close to my house by foot. Coming from Paris, which is not nearly as bad as the US, it felt like sheer magic when I first arrived.

[@KiryuuYoshiya]

the netherlands has, as far as im aware, very few hypermarkets. much of our shopping is done in our city centers, or small local outside shopping malls which almost always have a bus stop nearby and are reachable by bike and foot, and will nearly always have whatever you need. specialty stores, a barber, a tailoring shop, grocery stores, etc. im literally 5 minutes away from one that has a sport fishing store my brother frequents for his hobby lol

[@noneofyourbusiness4830]

I once stayed in a hotel, where the first 8 floors of the building are not the hotel, but a shopping mall and parking spaces. There was also a rooftop bar. Now that's efficient use of space!

[@ArcanePath360]

Even in 2001 when I went to America we thought it was odd how you don't have local supermarkets in streets, or convenience stores anywhere like we have in Britain. You had to go to huge places in the middle of nowhere to do a regular grocery shop and it took hours walking through a maze which sold everything, when all you wanted was a few supplies.

[@lukacsnemeth1652]

That HoMM3 Inferno town music edit is GOLD.

[@Tsukaiyo]

I really appreciate Toronto's Eaton Centre. It's a massive 4-storey mall that spans two subway stations, as in direct indoor access to subway stations at both the north and south sides of the building.

[@carlramirez6339]

7:28 I actually have been in that situation. If your city has safe drinking water, drink liberally in summer, because you'll never know when you'll be in the heat without shade.

[@DeathInTheSnow]

Yeah... this is why the heart of Enfield in North London is dying. We probably shouldn't have put a huge motorway through the very middle of it. And another motorway bordering the very north. Aaaaand another one bordering the very south. And there are big box shops all the way along... The main retail park on the A10 is completely vacant now. Maybe we should put a tramway depot there instead?

[@PhilippBlum]

The amazon thing is just like self-driving. People heavily underestimate how much engineering has to go into it. Practically speaking impossible.

[@schwarzwolfram7925]

People who want self-driving are the kind who want urban services with rural/suburban density. "If you don't like density, don't live in the city. That is the price for the convenience." is the equivalent to "If you don't like other people, don't use transit. That is the price for not driving." They aren't looking for a solution. They're looking for privilege.

[@PhilippBlum]

@@schwarzwolfram7925 That's very true.

[@PhilippBlum]

@@schwarzwolfram7925 All things considered, it's such a minor inconvenience considering all the benefits you get. But you can argue with egocentric and narcistic people all you want. They won't change, or even admit they are that.

[@OmegaEnvych]

funny that here in Ukraine especially in my hometown we had one of these cases - giant hypermarket built at the outskirts of the city. It didn't last more than a year and had to be closed because in my hometown convenience stores are located all around the town and larger malls are located inside the city. And they don't have massive parking lots due to limited space so for many people best way of interaction is to just go to the store or make an online order.

[@sjgames9104]

As someone who currently works in the ecommerce department of a big box store, there's not really anything I disagree with here. Solid vid! I will say your experience with Rewe's online pickup is pretty common though. Retailers in 2020 were trying desperately to figure out how to deal with such a huge wave of online customers, with most of them having only baby-stage internal systems, so for your experience with Rewe my guess is it was a supply/demand issue, with that day's previous orders having already picked the store's stock clean and inventory just hadn't been taken to reflect that yet

[@SethJayson]

In the US, while shopping malls are dying, the giant big boxes in their strip malls are proliferating.

[@kasane1337]

Commenting because a bot stole your comment 😔🕯

[@ExBlaz3]

People didn't grow environmentally conscious. They just preferred the convenience of sitting at home and tapping their phones a few times to have the items magically come to their home.

[@__NikolaTesla__]

20 years ago I used to bike to school in Chemnitz (City Center to Gablenz). When it was cold I had both hands in my pockets for the whole 15 minutes (except traffic lights, and last hundred meter uphills).

[@JB-yb4wn]

Cold? You don't know cold. Try doing that trick in a Canadian winter.

[@Tabley-Kun]

Warst du verrückt?! Die Augustusburger Straße oder auch die Zschopauer Straße damals mit dem Rad zu fahren ist ja schon ne Sache, aber mit den Händen in den Taschen?!

[@MarianneExJohnson]

Cycling in the cold is no big deal, but you should get mittens to keep your hands warm.

[@syiridium703]

Post-eastern block countries were still suffering from material shortages, I see. Proper gloves where hard to come by?

[@bubandlisa]

😂 no thanks ill stick to my trusty 1980 Ford Bronco the heater takes 2 min to heat up in harsh Wyoming winter and the AC is a lifesaver in wicked hot sumner

[@IspettoreCatiponda1]

I love how malls complain that online shopping is killing them, but they didn't flinch when cities complained that malls were killing them

[@lasselehma]

I mostly agree with your content, but during a heatwave I would much rather go to a nicely air conditioned hyper market to get everything I need fast and cheap than go to 10 different boutique stores with no or bad air conditioning and pay 4 times as much. Also my retired parents sometimes go walk at the mall during hot days because that's the only large open space where you can walk and not die of heat.

[@seresimarta4436]

That's true when you don't have trees in public places.

[@lasselehma]

@@seresimarta4436 I live in Finland and we do have lots of trees everywhere, but when it's like 30c°+ even walking in a forest is not great for elderly people.

[@404hopenotfound]

In floida there's a lot of trees but 100f 95% humidity is a major issue ​@seresimarta4436

[@Cantseemuch]

In the German city I come from most residential buildings are rundown 1860-1890s apartment blocks. We have a dying shopping street and a mediocre mall (that kills said shopping street). Most of the old apartment blocks had corner stores at some point and elderly people remember them fondly. In some buildings they still exist and are cafes, offices or boutiques but there are maybe 5-10 left. They add so much to a otherwise pretty dead neighborhood. Imagining that every building had one the city would be so nice and communicative.

[@keksimus__maximus]

I also have a lidl plus card, they give you a free doughnut on your birthday

[@ClemensKatzer]

"card" ? As in "plastic card in your wallet"? In Finland it's an app in the phone, already for ... dunno how many years.

[@keksimus__maximus]

@@ClemensKatzer card as in a virtual card kept on the app

[@ClemensKatzer]

@@keksimus__maximus all right, thanks!

[@Spring_Forward_Fall_Back]

I can break it down very simply - businesses stopped keeping very basic items in stock, and I got tired of running around after working all day looking for an item virtually no one had. And when I'd ask when the item would be re-stocked I'd be told to order it online. So I did. I opened my Prime account in 2010 and never looked back.

[@infinitenex8165]

These large parking lots are basically like walking through a whole airplane landing strip from end to end

[@electro_sykes]

the great thing about australia is unlike america, we have shopping centres with big box stores in them and our shopping centres are not in the middle of nowhere but rather in or near town centres and with new developments, we design the shopping centre to be the town centre. Furthermore we give each shopping centre multiple tenants specialising in different things. This includes anchors specialising in different retail markets but will still compete on small cheap stuff. Even though australian shopping centres can be car centric, there not as car centric as us shopping centres. And often we dont have standalone stores but rather a cluster of different stores.

[@Tangelos]

Thanks for removing the unnecessarily inflammatory community post!

[@kermitthefr0g507]

Man, the LIDL plus card thing at the end killed me! Thanks for your entertaining spotlights, especially on traffic and city planning related issues.

[@Alias_Anybody]

I think Hypermarkets can work - at the edge of town only if they are connected to (often the final station) of a Tram line. Like, you chill in a (hopefully cooled/heated) cart for 15 minutes, walk out and are basically inside, little parking space needed. Anything that fits into an average canvas bag you carry home, furniture might be delivered the next day. Alternatively, smaller shopping centers integrated into the fabric of the city (not just a business district, people actually life there too), I see them work for things like specialty clothing, jewelry/coins, specialty food and so on.

[@renezirkel]

Just by math, any market at the edge of some city is not a good location., as the average traveling distance for edge markets is longer and the number of inhabitants per radius around the market is lower. A Tram would improve that situation but does not change the math dramatically as 1 Tram is 1 line in a full circle of reachable consumers.

[@Neuzahnstein]

you take the car for picking up larger stuff.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@Neuzahnstein If you just randomly stumble over something larger you can't just manifest your car into the area.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@renezirkel The point was, there's no space for these HUGE markets in any central location, so it's either at the edge or doesn't exist at all.

[@Joaquin-rd3km]

​@@Alias_Anybody that's exactly the problem. These massive stores and malls have to be built for the future, not today. You can't build a giant supermarket in the middle of the city right now, but you can pick a developing location that is expected to keep growing and BECOME the central location lol. Once again it's just the American short sighted capitalist view that doomed these places. In my country we at least had a little longer view and all these big malls and stores were built on the 90s and 2000s and now are booming places, helping the development of the entire area and also make some companies incredibly rich lol. But since it took 20 years to happen, Americans didn't even think about it.

[@ConnorwithanO]

Malls and supermarkets are still doing pretty well in Tulsa County. But they're all built in the middle of town here, practically integrated with suburbs and apartment complexes. There are 3 supermarkets, multiple strip malls, and a supermall, plus rows of restaurants and 2 or 3 movie theaters, just within 2 miles of my house. All along bus stops.

[@lucaswhat6486]

In the neighborhood I live in New York City near the George Washington bridge there are a bunch of supermarkets, bodegas, restaurant's, and much more all fairly close to each other and within a walking distance. Not to mention its close to a bus terminal and 2 subway lines which are all easily accessible.

[@DulceN]

And that’s what’s called city living, which the rest of us living in suburbia cannot enjoy.

[@edwardherzrec]

The Ikea city store you showed at the end is literally one of my favorite places in Vienna. It's "Ikea Westbahnhof" and is a great place to go for a free coffee, cheap meal, great rooftop bar with views over the city. Often enough you can see people just relaxing in the prebuilt rooms doing their own thing as if they were actually at home.

[@williamallcorn1605]

I didn’t realize super stores were failing. Living here in the rural American south, they’re always still packed here. The malls are dead, sure, but Walmart is thriving.

[@bakomusha]

They are not, they are thriving and ever expanding. He is conflating terms. He means mega-malls.

[@businesscasualsauron]

You mentioning the pick-up at the store being planned for cars brought back a fun pandemic memory. I moved from Sweden to work in the Netherlands back in January 2021. In the summer of that year, I had to go get tested for COVID. I lived in Geleen, a fairly small town, which had closed its only testing site, which had been inside a car store. Anyway, I got on my bike as the test location wasn't in my town and it wasn't accessible by public transit, nor should I have taken it anyway, given that I thought I might have COVID. I get there, and... ... it's literally a car drive-through clinic. So I had to stand there in line with my bike, cars ahead & behind me, being the only chump who showed up on a bike or on foot. One driver jokingly asked me what model of car it was, I said Bugatti Chiron. We had a laugh, and then a nurse stabbed me in the nose with a cotton swab for the COVID test, and I went home.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Hope you were negative.

[@harrylion6689]

Yet after all these years, Costco still stands strong.

[@MBkufel]

I just moved across the country from living in an area where the closest Lidl was 800 metres away, to a place where it's 400 metres away. I approve your message

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

OK, I do not live in the USA, but in Scandinavia, in an central area, actually a relatively attractive area, but back in the 80'tis there was very little shops in the area, and we went to the city for everything, to buy food, go to the cinema, for everything, even paint was bought in the city, but so, when the shopping centres began coming to our area it was like coming to heaven, absolutely everyone went there, we even stayed in the shopping centre on Saturdays, it was other times

[@ZY1982]

Based on my experience in Europe, you might be underestimating a factor in favor of hypermarkets: cultural poverty. Hypermarkets are still places where people like to go spend their weekends if their education, intelligence or both does not allow them to come up with anything better to do. In countries like Germany, where for some reason private and public buildings are extrene aircon-averse, the air-conditioned environmente of an hypermarket provides an additional incentive not only to go there, but also to stay as long as possible. 😢

[@Talwyn22]

There's always an exception to every thesis. Costco That hypermarket chain is making billions in profits and is showing zero signs of decline. If anything they are growing, opening more stores globally. People flock in droves to the Cathedral of Capitalism, in their cars, not minding at all about driving there and back because Costco sells cheap fuel on site. It is one of the most successful retail models yet conceived. Riding your bike to shop at Costco is utterly pointless as the whole reason to shop at Costco is to buy in bulk and making savings that way. Sorry Adam but while the traditional shopping malls are dying in the US, Costco and to a lesser extent Wal-Mart are doing fine and aren't going anywhere

[@Skyfoogle]

true, but in the next few decades when cities increasingly densify, transit and cycling infrastructure improves, less people are driving and more people are going to local shops instead of department stores, these stores will have to adapt with more compact and urban locations. costco actually does do this in other countries, whereas walmart completely failed outside of north america because it couldn't.

[@PinkAgaricus]

There's also Costco's competition and club version of WalMart, Sam's Club, even though they've been closing stores (mostly in the mainland). The one near where I live, at least, gets full parking lots most of the time we go there. I feel like the reason why the WalMart ended up on the ground level is because they were eyeing the space that Target took (before Target took it) and Ala Moana's developer said no and chose Target over WalMart. I'm glad that happened because of what I've heard happen when they got added to certain malls (Swansea [no not in the UK] Mall - they took away any other business that sold alcohol's ability to sell that away to remove competition which is probably one of the reasons why that mall died and became a grey ghost). The Target/Planet Fitness/Saks Off 5th used to be a Nordstrom that moved into the shopping center's west wing expansion which also added Hawaii's only Bloomingdales (that whole area used to be a seared Sears). Also speaking of failures, Target and Sears in Canada I think they kind of failed in a similar way to WalMart in the rest of the world.

[@renezescribe1229]

Another advantage of the small local shop is that you have a much more humane relation with the staff; if you become a regular client, they know right away what you want when you set foot in their shop leaving you more time to chit chat with them!

[@edwardr.k.wilson1829]

Amazon's "AI store" actually stood for "All Indians store"

[@kurtmueller2089]

"past empty small shops that could not compete with the hypermarket price dumping", yes and no. Often the small shops were staffed by incompetent employees selling overpriced products, meanwhile the hypermarkets were also staffed by incompetent employees but at least the prices were lower. This is what killed them. At least in countries were it is forbidden to sell product for less than what it cost to buy them (unlike in the USA). We see this also with "evil Amazon" driving local businesses out: True, Amazon is not good, but local businesses often have only themselves to blame. People are willing to pay more for quality and service. Even if the quality is purely imagined, as is the case with crApple.

[@Admiral45-10]

So I did a bit of digging regarding the projected urbanisation growth: UN does predict, that by 2050 2,5 billion more people will live in urban areas - but the majority of this growth will occur in developing countries, namely India, Nigeria, and China - the reasons depicted being just overall trend of population increase and industrialization of said nations (not the ,,green" industrialization, mind you). I did find evidence of rise of overall urbanisation in EU by 4% on average, but the reasons depicted (that I could find at least) only mention overall comfort of living in a city - better Healthcare, road infrastructure, transport options, better job opportunities and etc. - but not the environmental consciousness. I agree with the claim that urbanism overall is on the rise - but it's a result of industrialization, not environmental consciousness. People move to cities to put food on a table, not because of some environmental efforts, sustainability or etc.

[@aminy23]

It's cyclical. Growing up in an tiny urban apartment, people often dream of having a house, a yard, and more room. Someplace big enough to raise kids. Those who don't have it end up having few kids which leads to falling birthrates in countries like South Korea, Japan, and Germany. Growing up in a house with a big yard, people often get tired of the upkeep & maintenance, then dream of a low maintenance lifestyle where they can be around more culture. However a more rural lifestyle also leads to a higher birhtrate. There is a missing middle - where people need affordable homes which they can own. They don't need to be 5+ stories tall, they don't need a 1/2+ acre yard.

[@kyryloreznykov4959]

I am surprised there is no video about Phoenix Arizona on your channel. We need one, it will be in the spirit of this channel.

[@confusedwhale]

So, did you delete that community post or was that a... youtube took it down situation?

[@georgegrenvillethe7thpm176]

The only place that I see Hypermarkets surviving is in rural areas, where they function like the general stores of centuries past but bigger and fancier

[@TomisaLami]

I will say one thing in their defense, though, since online shopping has become the dominant force the quality on literally every single thing is garbage. And I'm guessing because you can't really tell what you're buying before you buy it anymore and like yeah it was all the traffic which definitely needs to be solved and I'm in favor of I just don't know if the fact that we have to buy things for five times to fulfill the lifespan of the quality that used to exist, outweighs the traffic problems the problem is cars make it probably does but I'm just saying we should think about it. Also, like things don't have to be garbage but they are.

[@Booksforthewin]

The thing I hate the most about the car sprawl is that you can put the cars UNDER THE STORE. It’s not rocket science. You get everyone in the shade and have to buy less land, which makes building your store more affordable anyways, even after the extra costs of building under the store.

[@mist3h]

Will it be trains? *watches video*

[@mist3h]

This video did not contain any mention of trains 🥺

[@szymonp1701]

Tragic

[@generalrubbish9513]

The next video better contain _double_ the usual amount of trains. We don't want our boy Adam having withdrawal symptoms. EDIT: Called it.

[@AxoiTanner]

I can help: I often travel to hipermarket sized stores like ikea or castorama by train! it works, at least in Gdańsk/Gdynia in Poland. xD I even used both bike and train in my last trip to ikea. It is well connected to fast local train network, and quite a lot people are using this method.

[@mist3h]

@@AxoiTanner actually the new concept IKEA for urban cities (mentioned in the video), in my city of Copenhagen, is located literally on a massive bus and train station hub (Dybbølsbro). The IKEAs of old were always far away from where I’ve existed and I had barely any way of getting anything home because they didn’t want to deliver to my postal codes or carry items up stairs. I keep forgetting they built this new thing, because I wrote IKEA off years ago, as a thing exclusively for car people. Thanks for reminding me that I can enjoy trains and visit IKEA, if I want to.

[@starlightdragon2665]

I am a resident of Florida; my home state and city of Tampa is a traffic nightmare... We border almost four cities in side of our counties; St. Petersburg Fl. Brandon, Apollo Beach and Temple Terrace, our transit network is a nightmare. The Brandon off ramps are situated at traffic lights that are often red for several minutes at a time; on roads that are overflowing with traffic. Because there is an interstate going right through Brandon and there is a three major strip malls within 2 miles of each other. Brandon has no rail network; no transit lanes, no bike lanes, no pedestrian diversion such as over road bridges, and bus stops are situated between lights. In addition this major interstate has tons of restaurants and shopping right on the edges of the road, which means drivers can up stuck waiting for a very long time for a chance to go. The Selmon Connector in Tampa backs up frequently entering and leaving the city; because it links the road between Tampa and St. Petersburg, and though it is a toll road, it is frequently a source of major traffic jams. Bayshore Blvd is a traffic nightmare because of frequent pedestrian crosswalks, traffic lights that can take several minutes to turn over, road links to the selmon connector, and more. There is also a convention center and hockey center next to each other in a part of Tampa that has one way roads... And if people miss their turns they have to circle back around. This is in a state where drivers of all walks exist, and if someone misses something, they are going to try to fly across lanes to get where they are going... On top of this; Temple Terrace has two interstates and a freeway going through it, and because there is a mall not far from either of these locations, in addition to poorly regulated roads with high traffic and long light times, the traffic is going to back up. And St. Petersburg has miles of interstate and a freeway; linked between several towns with the same light setup problems as Brandon, and multiple areas of the towns where traffic either slows down or cant speed up. Tampa is a nightmare

[@ultraali453]

I live in Lahore, Pakistan. Where I live, it is densely populated. Everything is available on foot. I have three grocery apps on my phone (two of them are superstores). Also, three bakeries and two pharmacies. All of these are within a 1.5km radius of my home.

[@aminy23]

In countries like Pakistan, you have a massive labor force willing to do all the jobs needed there. Here in the US, we don't have that same labor force. Here stores are even struggling to hire cashiers and other positions.