Big Box USA explores the profound impact of large retail stores on the American economy and its ecosystems. The book examines the environmental consequences of these stores, from their construction and operation to their influence on consumer behavior and environmental policies. It delves into the history of big box retail, tracing its evolution from smaller stores to the massive structures we see today. The authors analyze the role of these stores in shaping consumer culture and their impact on various ecosystems, including marine environments and wetlands. Big Box USA ultimately prompts readers to consider their own role in the environmental impact of consumerism.
Shopping All the Way to the Woods traces the fascinating history of how the outdoor industry successfully marketed and sold the concept of nature to the American public. The book explores the evolution of outdoor gear and apparel, from its origins in practical functionality to its transformation into a symbol of status and identity. It examines the role of marketing and advertising in shaping perceptions of nature and outdoor recreation. The author also analyzes the environmental consequences of this commercialization of nature, highlighting the tension between access to the outdoors and its preservation. The book offers a critical perspective on the industry's impact on both consumer culture and the environment.
Our book is: Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America’s Biggest Retail Stores (UP of Colorado, 2024) which presents a new look at how the big box retail store has dramatically reshaped the US economy and its ecosystems in the last half century. From the rural South to the frigid North, from inside stores to ecologies far beyond, this book examines the relationships that make up one of the most visible features of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century American life. The rise of big box retail since the 1960s has transformed environments on both local and global scales. Almost everyone has explored the aisles of big box stores. The allure of “everyday low prices” and brightly colored products of every kind connect shoppers with a global marketplace. Contributors join a growing conversation between business and environmental history, addressing the ways American retail institutions have affected physical and cultural ecologies around the world. Essays on Walmart, Target, Cabela’s, REI, and Bass Pro Shops assess the “bigness” of these superstores from “smokestacks to coat racks” and contend that their ecological impacts are not limited to the footprints of parking lots and manufacturing but also play a didactic role in educating consumers about their relationships with the environment. A model for historians seeking to bring business and environmental histories together in their analyses of merchant capital’s role in the landscapes of everyday life and how it has remade human relationships with nature, Big Box USA is a must-read for students and scholars of the environment, business, sustainability, retail professionals, and a general audience.
Our guest is: Dr. Rachel Gross, who is assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches US environmental, business, and public history. She works with university and community partners to bring history into the public realm. She is the author of Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America, and the co-editor of Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America’s Biggest Retail Stores.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast. She uses her PhD in history to explore what stories we tell, and what happens to those we never tell.
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New Books in Economic and Business History