big box

plural big boxes

1. businessA 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

   2 more examples

   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

   Synonyms: big-box store, box store, hyperstore, megastore, supercenter, superstore

2. attributivecomputingSoftware supplied in a large box made from card, typical of the 1990s.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see big, box.