Over a two or three year period, I did not visit a shopping mall even once. Recently, I went shopping for clothes and found myself at a couple of malls here in San Diego. It was a surreal experience. I had lived my life without such things - without walking around a huge structure built for the purpose of keeping my attention so that I might buy what they offered. Instead, when impulse struck or I needed something, I used the Internet or went to a single-purpose store like Office Depot or a grocery store.
I haven't been able to put my finger on just why the shopping mall has become so alien to me. Perhaps I've become so steeped in Dave Ramseyism that the concept of buying-as-entertainment is subconsciously morally repugnant.
How about you? How often do you visit shopping malls? Is it a pleasant experience or is it something you avoid at all costs?
8 comments:
Avoid avoid avoid.
I've come to loathe crowds and despite the economic woes, there are still too many people at malls. The people that are there tend not to be those I'd seek out either. Malls also tend to have silly no-guns policies that just guarantee there will be trouble. I prefer to be better-armed than those who want to hurt me.
(truss)
Avoid them at all cost. I buy my jeans at Sears which is at a mall, but I enter from the street side and never venture further in than necessary. Ugh. I hate crowds. I've never understood people's desire for that kind of experience.
On the infrequent occurrence I need to get clothing or shoes I do tend to head to the outlet mall. I tend to find better deals there than online and I like to try things on before purchasing. Its hard to remember the last time we went to a regular mall. I think it was when I needed to get something at the apple store.
I visit the Amazon.com mall all the time. ;)
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About the only time I go to our local mall is to go to their movie theater. Even if I wanted to shop at it, there wouldn't be much point. At least in towns and smaller cities in the Midwest, the shopping mall concept appears to be dying. Our local mall used to claim to have 42 businesses, but now it is down to 7, and I'd estimate it is about 70% empty space. Malls that I have seen in Marquette MI and Hibbing MN are similar or even worse off. Strip malls still do OK, and most of the same businesses that were in the malls are still around and have relocated to the 4-10 store strip malls, which evidently have lower rents. They just aren't in the full-blown, walk-around-in-and-enclosed-environment malls. Most of the sort of traffic that used to go to the local mall now goes to Wal-Mart.
Oh, and incidentally, I never liked shopping malls because the ones I've been in don't have the things I need. They have always been much too clothing-centric. No hardware or electronic parts, or anything that you would actually use to *make* or *do* anything.
I think that the fact that the last time I frequented shopping malls was when I was in junior high speaks volumes about the nature and psychological underpinnings of shopping malls.
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