So the few times I've been to the US - once to California (which admittedly is different, on vacation rather than work), once to Corpus Christi, once to Arkansas (near Memphis) - I found myself boggling at how much open asphalt there was between stores.
I wondered if it was just because they had the space to expand, so they just did. It didn't occur to me that there were minimum parking rules. It was always very easy to park. Everywhere looked sort of empty/unpopular.