Quote:
Originally Posted by phil235
Some people are always going to prioritize low prices over everything else, so the only effective approach will be to try to implement policies that capture the real costs of behaviour that has a negative impact on others - probably through taxing driving and big-box development more appropriately.
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I expect there will be some changes in behaviour in the future.
For one, the rise of delivery services is going to substantially change way we shop in the future. In all these discussions about Europe, we also forget how well grocery delivery has done over there. It's incredible. The high cost of land, means that it is cheaper to locate far away in large, ugly warehouses than run large stores with huge parking lots in the city.
I suspect a substantial amount of big box retail will get replaced by this model in the years to come. And for the rest, I am curious to see what higher carbon pricing and generally higher road traffic will do to this habit of driving 15-20 mins to Costco in the future. Combine that with smaller living spaces, and it's going to be even more challenging.
There's a reason that the grocery chains are starting to get into "urban format" grocery stores. They see where increasing urban density is heading. Sobeys had started with Urban Fresh and then rebranded all of them as Farm Boy's. Loblaws bought Shopper's Drug Mart to sort of use as a urban grocer/convenience store. Metro is trying out smaller format stores under its own label. Etc.
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