North American architecture layouts

Was visiting Toronto with a friend of mine and I noticed this area in North York and how long people have to walk from these high rise apartments to the store. What's up with North American city planning? I don't understand why they build these structures with so much residential area and little retail area. It was snowing outside and I had to walk a long ways just to get to any stores. I'm not from New York City but at least they added stores on the corners and in the middle of blocks, in between the apartments, or underneath. I don't know what's up with the planning in America and GTA but man is it annoying to navigate sometimes. I was looking at these big open lawns in front of the high-rises and thought you could put a whole strip of stores here. But no, there is nothing but a fence and grass...