[ocschwar]

"Rails don't go to every department store or grocery store"

Bit of a self fullfilling prophecy there.

Lots of places around the world have rail slips going to the back of shopping malls.

The real reason is that 100 years ago the rail companies in America were so predatory and vicious to any customer trying to ship something smaller than a boxar's worth that the first generation of truck drivers were pretty much heroes for providing an alternative. The companies decided to stay in an inwardly looking economic niche and pretty much only ship slow moving multicar loads.