As shopping increasingly moves online, The Real Deal reports that major retailers like Walmart are looking for ways to downsize the parking lots at their brick-and-mortar locations. That’s good news for anyone who thinks our society allocates too much space for cars. The problem is that many cities, especially in the United States, demand stores maintain a minimum number of parking spots for shoppers, creating tension between retailers and lawmakers: “Most municipalities now demand more parking spaces per square foot of store space than the retailers want, according to the report, with big chains like Walmart seeking zoning variances so they can decrease the number of spaces the government demands, saving money on the cost of land.”

🪂 It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane...

Meituan’s drone delivery ambitions are getting seriously advanced, TechCrunch reports: “Over the past two years, Meituan, one of China’s largest internet companies, has flown 19,000 meals to 8,000 customers across Shenzhen, a city with close to 20 million people. The pilot program is available to just seven neighborhoods, each with a three-kilometer stretch, and only from a select number of merchants. The drones deliver to designated streetside kiosks rather than hover outside people’s windows as envisioned by sci-fi writers.”