Big Box Development

Big Box Development is a type of retail development that includes large, one-stop, low-cost shops. Walmart, Target and Kmart are typical big-box stores with a broad product mix, but there are also more specialized big-box stores like Home Depot (hardware), Barnes & Noble (books) and Best Buy (electronics). Big-box “megastores,” which usually have a plain warehouse style design and are 50,000+ square feet, began appearing in the U.S. in the 1960s. Although big-box stores are popular with consumers, they are controversial in many communities because of their impact on local retail – and because the large retail spaces can be hard to repurpose when the original stores move out.