Final post for now.

With all of the hullabaloo over Chicago's big box ordinance (summary: living wage if your store is over 90,000 square feet and you gross over $1B annually; all companies potentially affected are pissed) I've been wondering just how big 90,000 square feet is - it's hard to visualize. Here are some references.

• The average Target is 126,000 square feet. SuperTarget is 174,000.
• The average Wal-Mart is 101,000 square feet. Super Centers are 185,000.
• The average Lowe's is 116,000 square feet. (Note that this source is a little dated, and Lowe's was trying a "small store" format of 94,000 square feet.)
• The average Home Depot is 130,000 square feet.

Thus, 90,000 would be smaller. But I've maintained that the retailers should just build smaller stores (89,999 square feet, anyone? ... although, of course, that wouldn't exempt them from the ordinance. But still.)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend