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Shopping habits in the United States have changed greatly in the last quarter of the 20th century. -- 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 -- on both sides with many -- businesses. Here, shoppers walked into stores to look at all sorts of merchandise: clothing, furniture, hardware, groceries. --, some shops offered --.These shops included drugstores, restaurants, shoe-repair stores, and barber or hairdressing shops. -- in the 1950s, a change began to --.Too many automobiles had crowded into Main Street -- too few parking places were -- shoppers. Because the streets were crowded, merchants began to look with interest at the open spaces -- the city limits. Open space is what their car-driving customers needed. And open space is what they got -- the first shopping centre was built. Shopping centres, or rather malls, -- as a collection of small new stores -- crowded city centres. -- by hundreds of free parking space, customers were drawn away from -- areas to outlying malls. And the growing -- of shopping centres led -- to the building of bigger and better-stocked stores. -- the late 1970s, many shopping malls had almost developed into small cities themselves. In addition to providing the -- of one-stop shopping, malls were transformed into landscaped parks, -- benches, fountains, and outdoor entertainment. 1.A.As early as B. Early C. Early as D. Earlier | 
