| Shopping habits in the United States have changed greatly in the last quarter of the 20th century. --1-- in the 1900s most American towns and cities had a Main Street. Main Street was always in the heart of a town. This street was --2-- on both sides with many --3-- businesses. Here, shoppers walked into stores to look at all sorts of merchandise: clothing, furniture, hardware, groceries. --4--, some shops offered --5--. These shops included drugstores, restaurants, shoe repair stores, and barber or hairdressing shops. --6-- in the 1950s, a change began to --7--. Too many automobiles had crowded into Main Street --8-- too few parking places were --9-- shoppers.Because the streets were crowded, merchants began to look with interest at the open spaces --10-- the city limits. Open space is what their cardriving customers needed.And open space is what they got --11-- the first shopping centre was built.Shopping centres, or rather malls, --12-- as a collection of small new stores --13-- crowded city centres. --14-- by hundreds of free parking space, customers were drawn away from --15-- areas to outlying malls. And the growing --16-- of shopping centres led --17-- to the building of bigger and better stocked stores. --18-- the late 1970s, many shopping malls had almost developed into small cities themselves. In addition to providing the --19-- of one stop shopping, malls were transformed into landscaped parks, --20-- benches, fountains, and outdoor entertainment. |
