Everyone who loves convenience in shopping can thank Edward Delk and J.C. Nichols. It was they who conceived, designed and built the first shopping mall in the U.S. The Country Club Plaza, on the outskirts of Kansas City, opened this month in 1923 to wide acclaim. It was the first shopping area to have stores facing inwards toward a promenade, rather than facing out toward a road. The mall had 150 stores, (a 2,000 seat auditorium,) and parking for 5,500 cars. Today, the Country Club Plaza is still in business — along with 49,000 other shopping centers, where Americans ring up much of the nation’s $4.3 trillion in retail sales annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.