This episode first aired in March 2024.
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.
"Big Box USA" presents a new look at how the big box retail store has dramatically reshaped the U.S. economy and its ecosystems in the last half century. The book joins a growing conversation between business and environmental history, addressing the ways American retail institutions have affected physical and cultural ecologies around the world.
Our guests include:
Bart Elmore is professor of environmental history, a core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State University, and author of the award-winning Citizen Coke, as well as Seed Money and Country Capitalism.
Rachel S. Gross is assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches US environmental, business, and public history. She is the author of Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America.
Sherri Sheu is the Haas Curatorial Fellow at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia and former councilor-at-large for the American Historical Association.
