You're talking to someone who sells large shopping centers for a living. Starbucks is back to expansion mode, btw. Your getting into complexities here. Gap won't put a store in a power center. Office Depot won't go into a regional/super-regional center. Rite Aid has a failing business model and can't compete with Caremark. You're comparing apples to oranges.
Also increasing shopping trips drives down retailer revenue. Small shops *have* to be near a grocery anchor. Staples *will not* be in a center by itself. Only Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Sears, and Kohl's will dare to own and develop their own stores, but they all really like to be near each other. Notice? Near me the reason why Best Buy has not come to Midtown is because Sembler and other developers were able to put up a multi-anchor center just a couple miles away. In Midtown there are only a couple lone spaces for an urban format of a big box, and they will be all alone. Atlantic Station was able to pull in department and upper scale mall stores because they all went in together, thus killing the potential for them to come to Midtown, too.
The reason a pension fund paid a premium for Edgewood Retail District is because store sales are high and lease terms are long and filled by A credit or better tenants. Why are they high? Abundant, free parking. A draw of 200,000 people within a couple miles. Convenient access to both MARTA and the interstate. And one-stop shopping that reduces trips...the anchors are Lowe's, Target, Kroger, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Ross Dress, Marshalls, and on and on and on. Little 5 Points and the Highlands neighborhoods are a walk away, it's all about convenience to the shopper, not increasing trips.
On a very simple level, every retailer has a certain radius pull. Let's say Walmart's is 8 miles. Well what if there are 300,000 people in a 10x10 mile area, and it is solidly middle class. You can bet your bottom dollar Walmart would like to have at least 3 stores in there and maybe a Neighborhood Market to carry the brand name further within that area. Doesn't mean they necessarily can put 3 stores in there, but if they could...
The problem retailers faced was easy credit and too many people living on credit, so their site selection departments carried over the 3 million person metro formula to the 1 million person metros, etc.
Value is also back in vogue. The dollar stores, the TJ Maxxes, the Marshalls, the Rosses, etc are all doing really really well. The Jos. A Banks, same. In today's climate they can litter areas with stores and do alright because that is where people are shopping.