Why put big anchor stores far apart instead of side by side?

Answer: Pull traffic past small shops

Keep big stores convenient — This would make the big stores easier to compare, but it would waste their drawing power. An anchor store already attracts destination shoppers; the mall's advantage is created when that trip spills traffic into the shared interior. Convenience for the anchor is less valuable than exposure for everyone between anchors.

Shorten shopper routes — This is the opposite of the classic mall logic. Shorter routes would help a shopper finish faster, but mall planners often want a destination trip to create shared foot traffic. The extra walk is valuable because each storefront along it gets a chance to interrupt the original plan.

Pull traffic past small shops ✓ — Right: anchors are destination stores, so placing them at opposite ends makes a trip to one large store expose shoppers to many smaller ones. A shopping-center location paper says this is standard planning logic, and retail design sources independently describe opposite-end anchors as a way to distribute foot traffic. The surprise is that the long walk is not a flaw; it is a traffic-sharing device.