The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

I was just thinking a few weeks back about how retail parks are the absolute devil and need to die.
Though not sure on singling them out as americas worst invention. They're more a symptom of car centric urban design than the problem itself.

Agreed - they are generally dying though.

[Josquius]

I'm not sure there. Malls are dying but retail parks seem to be going strong. Covid has given them quite a extra boost too.

I was just thinking a few weeks back about how retail parks are the absolute devil and need to die.
Though not sure on singling them out as americas worst invention. They're more a symptom of car centric urban design than the problem itself.

I mean I guess all you just hate cars in general. Germany invented those, not us, so direct your ire in their direction.

Still think it beats enslaving horses.

Sure. And early 20th century cars as horse and cart replacements were great.
Then the planners got it in their heads cars were the future and started designing the world around them.
Societal collapse was inevitable.

[Valmy]

I was just thinking a few weeks back about how retail parks are the absolute devil and need to die.
Though not sure on singling them out as americas worst invention. They're more a symptom of car centric urban design than the problem itself.

Agreed - they are generally dying though.

Yeah. Just like all retail.

I am not sure why this is celebrated.

[Sheilbh]

That's not what I expected. Thought it'd be a shouty gammon going on about how covid is a scam.
Not a random stupid kids going "look a famous guy. Woo"

But of course - one of them was an estate agent. Didn't think he could fall in my estimation, but here we are

[Admiral Yi]

What's a retail park?

[crazy canuck]

They are a blight.  I doubt strip malls have existed for hundreds of years - even in the US 

You don't line stores up in Canada? Alright. Whatever.

Your claim was that something like a strip mall has existed in the US for hundreds of years.  That is not accurate for the US, and certainly not accurate for Canada.

That blight did not come to us until about the 70s and took hold in the 80s.  Thankfully the blight is coming to an end as people now understand just how terrible they are.

If you cannot tell the difference between a strip mall and a grouping of stores in a shopping district which includes other mixed use buildings.  Alright.  Whatever. 

[The Brain]

What's a retail park?

Korean store owner. Think '92 riots footage.

[grumbler]

What's a retail park?

The worst British invention.

[Tonitrus]

What's a retail park?

In an 'Merican context, I'd think it would be a collection/area of big-box stores (vs a strip-mall type locale).

[Admiral Yi]

In an 'Merican context, I'd think it would be a collection/area of big-box stores (vs a strip-mall type locale).

Gotcha.

[Josquius]

I looked up strip mall and was given retail park as what we know it as.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I think strip malls can be quite small? Retail park implies big box stores and too many cars for me; I go to one every five years or so and swear never to go again and then forget 

[The Larch]

I used to follow a Youtube channel about urban design that covered the several incarnations of retail spaces in different videos which are rather easy to watch and very informative, in case anyone wants to check them:

Why are there so many strip malls?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yIswZLu_cY

Did pedestrian malls ruin US downtowns?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tg9IMCKa5M&t=528s

Can you build main streets in the suburbs? (about "Lifestyle centers"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4XvEAUq8f8

[Admiral Yi]

I think strip malls can be quite small? Retail park implies big box stores and too many cars for me; I go to one every five years or so and swear never to go again and then forget 

Yeah.  Three stores is all you need for a strip mall.  Two if you want to stretch it.

So in these retail parks are all the big boxes glopped together, or are they stand alone?

[Agelastus]

So in these retail parks are all the big boxes glopped together, or are they stand alone?

A mixture, I believe, to try and give the Park some "character".

This is a link to the map of Rushden Lakes, a relatively new development - that is well on the way to sucking the remaining life out of the town centres of several places in Northamptonshire -

https://www.rushdenlakes.com/map/#