Perhaps what we need are shopping malls. Aren't they, after all, the modern cathedrals of consumerism? (And aren't they just what we need more of in this world?) :P
Shopping malls aspire to be beautiful (primarily on the inside), but they can never be as beautiful or as well-architected as cathedrals, in form or in spirit.
Shopping malls have a bigger overhead than bazaars, and are less flexible. But their overhead is much less, and their flexibility much greater, than that of cathedrals.
Shopping malls provide more foundation and infrastructure than bazaars do. A bazaar minus its stalls is just a dusty field. A shopping mall minus its shops still has multiple levels, maps / directories, elevators / escalators, parking, loading docks, etc.
It costs more to set up shop in a mall than in a bazaar, but your shop will be more trusted, you won't have to squabble for space with your neighbours every day, and you won't get blown away by the next storm.
Shopping malls are designed with dedicated spaces that are tailored to different businesses. A supermarket has very different needs compared to a shoe shop.
Shopping malls are bazaars with a tonne of design, engineering, and regulation thrown in. But they're still bazaars. They're still where you get your groceries.
A shopping mall is also an example of what some theorists call "antimarkets": places which resemble a typical market with competition and choice but which are heavily regulated and controlled to exclude open participation.
Kind of like if the iOS App Store only had room for 15 apps, and Apple Inc decided which, and the roster was only updated every few years at most.
To a first approximation, it does only have room for the top 10/20 apps per category. Discovery is notoriously difficult and the benefits of buying your way onto the top 10 are validated.
Shopping malls aspire to be beautiful (primarily on the inside), but they can never be as beautiful or as well-architected as cathedrals, in form or in spirit.
Shopping malls have a bigger overhead than bazaars, and are less flexible. But their overhead is much less, and their flexibility much greater, than that of cathedrals.
Shopping malls provide more foundation and infrastructure than bazaars do. A bazaar minus its stalls is just a dusty field. A shopping mall minus its shops still has multiple levels, maps / directories, elevators / escalators, parking, loading docks, etc.
It costs more to set up shop in a mall than in a bazaar, but your shop will be more trusted, you won't have to squabble for space with your neighbours every day, and you won't get blown away by the next storm.
Shopping malls are designed with dedicated spaces that are tailored to different businesses. A supermarket has very different needs compared to a shoe shop.
Shopping malls are bazaars with a tonne of design, engineering, and regulation thrown in. But they're still bazaars. They're still where you get your groceries.