The supermarket concept predates the American High. In DeKalb, there are two early A&P stores, one smaller than the store modelled here, now an auto parts store near the rail station; its successor a few blocks away, where clearing land for additional parking was easier to do, it's been several different things ever since A&P left town.
What we see here was what emerged during the Second Era of American Greatness, when the abundant motor fuel that made victory in the War possible, combined with mass-produced tract housing and improved agricultural productivity releasing land on the outskirts of cities for other uses led to larger supermarkets with bigger parking lots. Contrast that with the original DeKalb A&P that provided maybe six parking spots adjacent to the store. The next step was the shopping center, sometimes anchored with a supermarket, sometimes not. Those shopping centers were sometimes smaller than what we understand as strip malls today. The enclosed shopping mall first appeared about at the same time, again taking advantage of those land and fuel price incentives.
It's not, though, as David Brooks had it. "It's as if Zeus came down and started plopping vast towns in the middle of the farmland and the desert overnight. Boom! A master planned community. Boom! A big-box mall! Boom! A rec center, pool, and four thousand soccer fields!"
Rather, the pattern we understand as suburban sprawl emerged, perhaps encouraged by zoning codes and the planning imperative, perhaps not.
I took that picture from the Beaver Tail car of New Zealand Rail's Wellington - Auckland day train, in January 2000. The same sort of strip development we see in the States is also present half a world away, in a suburban area served by electric commuter trains.
In the same way that the American High built environment emerged piecemeal, whatever comes next is also likely to take shape piecemeal, although some experiments might be more successful than others.
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