re: #458 Walter L. Newton

It’s a big wide wonderful world we live in… not everyone can or ever could drive just a short distance for whatever they wanted. The reverse of what you are saying is true too… with the addition of Walmart type stores, the distances someone has to drive to get to that Walmart is offset by the fact that now they can find what they are looking for in one place… normally the distance they had to go to get just ONE sort of item.

When a number of small businesses are gathered in a town square, or even local strip mall, the driving distance is still the same to visit different ones for different items. When such a shopping area is local, driving isn’t always even necessary when there are sidewalks and bike paths.