big box meaning: definition, quotations

big box

nounalso spelled big-box

Business, Commerce, Retail A large self-service store, usually on a single level, with few interior walls, owned and run by a corporation.

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:
Big Boxes are becoming ever more prevalent in suburbia, replacing many viable regional malls or2012, Lisa Scharoun, America at the Mall: The Cultural Role of a Retail Utopia, Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, →ISBN, page 120:

1 more example

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 spaces2024, 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:

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Software supplied in a large box made from card, typical of the 1990s.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see big, box.

Related terms: hypermarket

big-box

adj

US Of or relating to a very large retail establishment built as a massive, free-standing structure.

Big-box retailers like Wal-Mart have driven local mom-and-pop stores out of business.
Crisscrossing the United States on an epic World Cup road trip, the pseudonymous soccer fan posted about the beauty of big-box chain stores and gas stations, projecting an infectious enthusiasm for American mass culture.2026 July 1, Will Oremus, “So Long to America’s Favorite Everymensch”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC: