Many rural districts are facing economic decline because of a range of factors such as demographic change, changing socio-economic development patterns, farm amalgamations, the entry of large retail businesses, the so called ‘Big Box Retailing’ (BBRs), and a decline in rural infrastructure investment. These factors in turn affect the viability of many small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the primary employers and the engines for economic growth and employment in rural districts. The combined effect of these processes is that many rural districts struggle to keep young people, maintain economic and social diversity and attract new settlers and investment. This thesis seeks to answer the question as to how large scale retail businesses, rural farm amalgamations and declining rural populations impact on the viability of SME retail businesses in rural areas. In order to answer this question, this study identifies the key factors, which affect the future viability of small-to-medium sized retail businesses in sparsely populated rural districts using the South Taranaki District as a case study. The role of economic development agencies and district councils is also examined using case studies of small towns in rural districts of Australia and the United States of America (USA). This study found a number of factors affect the future viability of small-to-medium sized retail businesses in sparsely populated rural districts. For the South Taranaki district, these factors include the arrival of large-scale supermarkets, followed by large scale retail chains such as The Warehouse. These factors, combined with changing rural population structures and economic ‘spikes’ relating to sporadic energy development, have significant implications for the long term viability of many SMEs in the district. Case studies of similar rural districts in the USA and Australia provided examples of strategies that could be used to manage these impacts. This thesis recommends policies, initiatives and strategies that may be considered by territorial local authorities, regional councils and central governments to help address the economic development challenges facing rural districts.

Future architectural relics are everywhere, manifest in the ultimately unsustainable patterns many American communities have replicated - endless weed-infested parking lots, decrepit malls, the abandoned Walmart glowering across the street at the even bigger Super Walmart. Gone are many of the small, independently owned businesses that lined main streets in small and medium-sized communities across the country, rendered relics by shopping malls lauding big-name brands or cheap products. Malls, too, may be on their way to becoming relics, due in part to the Internet and The Great Recession. However, architectural relics in the form of big box stores have haunted the American landscape since 1964. These box-like, impossibly large structures continue to be built, only to stand empty several years later when an even larger store model is constructed. The country is facing a new obsolescence of extravagance. No longer can our floundering economy support an infinite boom of boxes. Every new big box is a future relic. While many architectural and cultural historians such as Richard Longstreth, David Smiley, and Neil Harris have dissected the relic of the American shopping mall, few have grappled with the ubiquity of the big box store and how this structural form has departed from a longstanding tradition of retail architectural design. In this thesis, I analyze the factors have contributed to the rise and fall of these creaking behemoths of retail architecture. Ultimately, I contend that big box stores mark a stark departure in architectural theory and practice, and that this departure has manifested in a multitude of cultural, economic, and environmental consequences.

The big-box retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Target have become the focus of many studies researching their impacts on local economic outcomes. This dissertation studies three related topics: (i) the dynamic interrelationship among the presence of the big-box stores, retail wage, and employment, (ii) the impact of the big-box retailers on personal income growth, and (iii) the dynamic interrelationship between the presence of big-box retailers and personal income growth. The research draws important insights with potential implications for regional developers and policy makers. The first essay analyzes the dynamic relationship among the presence of the big-box retailers, retail wage, and employment at the county level for 1986-2005. A vector autoregression model is applied on panel data. Impulse response functions and variance decompositions are also presented. Results suggest that the presence of big-box stores decreases retail wages and increases retail employment. Retail employment has a higher impact on the retailers’ location decision than retail wage. The results also show that the presence of Wal-Mart drives the above-mentioned effects, while the presence of Target is insignificant. The second essay investigates the impact from the presence of big-box retailers on personal income growth in U.S. counties between 2000 and 2005 - based on neoclassical growth models of cross-country income convergence. Results suggest that counties having both Wal-Mart and Target stores experienced slower growth in personal income. After controlling for spatial autocorrelation, similar to the first essay, the effect of Wal-Mart’s presence on personal income growth is dominant in terms of statistical significance relative to Target’s. The third essay expands the second essay and investigates the dynamic interaction between the presence of big-box retailers and personal income growth over time at the county level for the period 1987-2005, using a panel vector autoregression model. For this analysis, the earning shares of natural resources and manufacturing sectors are included - assuming that all the variables are endogenous to one another. The findings indicate that big-box retailers negatively affect personal income growth, which is consistent with the second essay. However, personal income growth has an insignificant effect on the big-box retailers’ location decision.

Statement of Problem Revitalization of downtowns across America continues to be challenged by the shift to the suburbs. The barriers to integrating large-scale retail in a small, medium, and large city downtown were examined. Forces of Data The System View Planning Theory (Taylor, 1998) guided the study of city planners’ and consumers’ perceived barriers to integrating large scale retail into the downtown. In order to ascertain the barriers to integrating large-scale retail into the downtown intercept-surveys with consumers (n=30, responded to the intercept survey in each city) and interviews with city planners were conducted. Conclusion Reached Some significant differences were found between perceived barriers towards integrating large-scale retail into small and large-city downtowns. Although most consumers reported a positive attitude towards large-scale retail, most consumers in Tucson and San Diego indicated that the cost of shopping in the downtown outweighed the benefits. Traffic, parking, pedestrian-friendly street-oriented environment, and local character are among the major barriers identified by the study cities to integrating large-scale retail into the downtown. However, over half of the consumers surveyed agreed that they would shop at large-scale retail on the weekdays if it were available, but less than half of consumers in Tucson and San Diego would shop at large-scale retail on the weekends. Recommendations Three recommendations were suggested to successfully establish and sustain large-scale retail in the downtown. 1. Continue to find creative solutions to parking and traffic barriers. 2. Create a multifunctional, walkable downtown, with amenities to meet most consumers’ needs. 3. Establish retail stores in the downtown that enhance the local character and cater to residents’ needs rather than mostly tourist needs.

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The big-box superstore has created a dramatic effect on the retail landscape since its appearance in 1962. As big-box stores proliferate, small business owners continue to struggle with how to compete. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify and explore strategies small business owners use to maintain or grow profit margins post big-box store market entry. The sample consisted of 5 small business owners in Kansas City, Missouri who survived the entry of the big-box store for at least 1 year. The conceptual framework was the general systems theory and systems thinking. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, archival data, and data mining. I used Yin's five-phase process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding for data analysis where 3 themes emerged that contributed to the case study's small businesses maintaining or increasing profits. These themes were employees and customers, finances, and organizational strategies. Key findings within the themes indicated that innovation, product differentiation, and flexibility were keys to profitability. The sustainability of small business in communities brings a variety of benefits to include social, economic, environmental, and aesthetic. These benefits can translate into tangible results such as a reduction in crime, increased social interaction, a stronger sense of identity, increased diversity, and more equity. Empowering local small business owners with sustainable business strategies could result in more businesses remaining profitable, leading to an improved standard of living for business owners and urban redevelopment as businesses flourish while contributing to local economies.

This thesis addresses resilience for the future of Canadian suburbs, through the lens of buildings and food, particularly against the backdrop of peak oil and climate change. Food access is an integral part of how a city sustains itself. There is growing evidence that the current global food system, the one that feeds many cities today, is “broken” or at least at risk. It has, in the past, produced an abundance of food. It has also brought along a number of unintended consequences, has neglected to embed equitable distribution patterns, and when faced with peak oil and climate change, risks some form of collapse. This thesis focuses on the food distribution question. It suggests a new food system model for the City of Mississauga that couples the region's local systems with global networks in a set of local/global relationships. The research portion of this work provides an overview of the dynamic historical and present relationship between food and city infrastructure, touches on the issues facing suburban resiliency today, and investigates the challenges facing the food retail industry. It then draws lessons from large-scale typologies of urban agriculture being proposed in recent years by architects and urban designers. This work, specifically at the design stage, identifies the suburban supermarket as a local catalyst for transformation. Today, the City of Mississauga is not food secure – that is, it does not rely on a safe, adequate, sustainable, or appropriate food supply. This thesis investigates how local and sustainable food systems can be integrated into the urban fabric and systems sustaining suburbs today. It further seeks to build on existing conditions, and answer how the suburban big-box typology, preferred by retailers, can contribute to food security.

This thesis addresses resilience for the future of Canadian suburbs, through the lens of buildings and food, particularly against the backdrop of peak oil and climate change. Food access is an integral part of how a city sustains itself. There is growing evidence that the current global food system, the one that feeds many cities today, is “broken” or at least at risk. It has, in the past, produced an abundance of food. It has also brought along a number of unintended consequences, has neglected to embed equitable distribution patterns, and when faced with peak oil and climate change, risks some form of collapse. This thesis focuses on the food distribution question. It suggests a new food system model for the City of Mississauga that couples the region's local systems with global networks in a set of local/global relationships. The research portion of this work provides an overview of the dynamic historical and present relationship between food and city infrastructure, touches on the issues facing suburban resiliency today, and investigates the challenges facing the food retail industry. It then draws lessons from large-scale typologies of urban agriculture being proposed in recent years by architects and urban designers. This work, specifically at the design stage, identifies the suburban supermarket as a local catalyst for transformation. Today, the City of Mississauga is not food secure – that is, it does not rely on a safe, adequate, sustainable, or appropriate food supply. This thesis investigates how local and sustainable food systems can be integrated into the urban fabric and systems sustaining suburbs today. It further seeks to build on existing conditions, and answer how the suburban big-box typology, preferred by retailers, can contribute to food security.

This study inquires as to whether Walmart’s sustainability campaign represents a sincere and holistic change throughout the company’s global supply chain or if it is simply a public relations campaign which caters to the growing target market of “next-generation” consumers and justifies further expansion into “emerging markets”. A critical analysis of Walmart’s sustainability discourse is presented, using transcribed texts of various corporate and publicitygeared publications. Frequently utilized terms and themes are identified throughout the big-box retailer’s sustainability campaign which convey a distinctly Neoliberal ethos—a political economy which lies at the heart of current practices of institutional unsustainability—and emphasize the role of the atomized individual—who may purchase protection from environmental risks via green products. Other themes, which are commonly associated with sustainability research, are glaringly absent: subsidiarity; human rights; steady-state economics; economic inequity; the precautionary principle. This research aims to shed light on the prospects for the sustainability of green overconsumption, which Walmart is leading the way in promoting, and for the continuation of the modern economistic zeitgeist into the twenty-first century.

Big-box Urban Mixed-use Developments (BUMDs) are mixed-use developments with a consistent typology that incorporate big-box retailers in a central role. They are also becoming popular in the Atlanta region. While BUMDs serve an important economic role, they also cause issues with stormwater. This study explores integrating a on-site approach to stormwater management into the design of BUMDs. These new designs not only significantly lower the amount of stormwater run-off, but also have potential for better, more attractive, developments.