New Cities/New Soviets

November 18, 2004

big box 1

Depot dud: The new Home Depot on W. 23rd St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves. has made a big point of adjusting its inventory for urban dwellers, but the store may need a little more work. Business was brisk there Sunday during the chain’s first weekend in New York City, but a friend of Scoopy had trouble finding two items. When he asked a clerk if they had fold-up, grocery shopping carts, a woman shopper who overheard the request began directing the person to a nearby hardware store. "Hey, hey, hey," the clerk protested, until he realized the megastore did not have the carts, a necessary convenience in a world without supermarket parking lots and home driveways.

from the Villager

Three points:
1) Big Boxes are hitting the Big Apple
2) With the recent spate of complaints about physical under-exertion in the suburbs, this is a technology that points to the physical over-exertion in the cities. These devices are used, particularly by the aged, to cart heavy groceries from the supermarkets back to their apartments. Most of the aging housing-stock in my neighborhood (among others) is walk-up, prompting the question: how do these groceries get upstairs? The "over-dependence on cars" in the suburbs is mirrored by an under-technologization of transportation in the cities.
3) Big Box Deliveries -- a solution for cities? A solution for suburbs?

Posted by Sam at November 18, 2004 07:25 PM

sorry commenter "dr jones", I inavertently deleted your message in a spam clean-up.

as best as I remember it went:

"I have an article posted in my office entitled 'suburban sprawl sickening' from the [i forget the newspaper]. All my co-workers ask about it and what it means, but I think they already know."

sorry for the mess-up, no offense intended. Post again without fear of deletion.

Posted by: sam at November 29, 2004 07:57 PM

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