Dictionary

big box en · NOUN

Meanings

1. A large self-service store, usually on a single level, with few interior walls, owned and run by a corporation.
   • Big Boxes are becoming ever more prevalent in suburbia, replacing many viable regional malls or 2012, Lisa Scharoun, America at the Mall: The Cultural Role of a Retail Utopia, Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, →ISBN, page 120:
   • Different models of specialty big boxes persist , as does the suspicion of Walmart as both a cultural influence and a touchstone for how to build retail spaces 2024, Bart Elmore, Rachel S. Gross, Sherri Sheu, Big box USA: the environmental impact of America's biggest retail stores, Laramie, WY: University of Wyoming Press, →ISBN, page 152:
   • Expect major mall owners to step up their courting of discounters and big boxes. 2006, Stacy Mitchell, Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses, Boston: Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 120:
2. (attributive) Software supplied in a large box made from card, typical of the 1990s.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see big, box.

Forms

Coordinates

mom and pop

Relateds

hypermarket

Synonyms

supercenter · superstore · megastore · hyperstore · big-box store · box store