I might be mistaking, and I haven’t been living in those times, but by what I heard, let say, 50 years ago, familly were much larger in number than today. It was commun to have 8-15 familly members. However, these famillies were shopping at small corner grocery store.
As oppose to today, where, I believe the average familly number (kids) is around 1.5 or 2.5 children per familly. This being said, we have always larger and larger shop, shopping mall and we have Costco! Where you can buy in hug format.
Don’t misunderstand me, I like Costco and I shop there quite often. But it just felt funny this morning when I was driving to work, to think that it is when we have smaller familly that grocery store are getting bigger.
It’s the american way of living… Bigger is better, isn’t it? Sad, but I think this is all driven by the economy. People are ready to shop in a warehouse, buy goods in large quantities and find only a portion of what they need if they can save 20$ in the process. People claim they want service, a warm welcome, human interraction, etc. but when they are alone with their wallet in their hands, ready to make a choice, they tend to flush all those good intentions down the toilet and go shop at a warehouse.
I like to promote small and independant shops when I can, but I have to agree this is not always practical to do so.
It is also part of the way our contemporary urban environments are designed along with short sighted urban planning – big boxes, lack of public transit, dependence on the car, walmatization – http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7034 and atomatized family units! Because i live downtown and do not have a car, i never shop at big box stores. A few months ago i took the train to southgate mall to see a movie – and i felt like i was in an urban desert – cars, pavement, ugly boxes junk and noise! It is really not a cozy space!
J’aime le blog nat!