The giant stores are not white elephants, insists Clarke, but he "wouldn't want a great many more of them".

He said discussions of taking land by eminent domain for giant stores have frightened downtown residents.

By the 1920's all the giant stores had been converted to lofts and manufacturing.

He is also pursuing ties with some giant electronic stores in the United States.

They acknowledge that price maintenance is sometimes used by giant stores to prevent smaller ones from competing with discounts.

The police now estimate that close to 1,000 people were in the giant store when the fire broke out.

The concept, borrowed from Europe, involves giant stores that sell groceries and general merchandise.

Now the Giuliani administration is wrestling with whether to lower those barriers to draw more of the giant stores to the city.

Can Levitz take a big national company with giant stores and make them work as well?

In recent years, some giant stores have been able to sidestep the laws by narrowing their market focus.