Something Clever About Malls
In 1956 the first shopping mall opened, and within a few short decades, hundreds of malls had opened across the US. These spaces were created to provide communities and commodities, which were often found downtown, to the suburban population. In recent years, malls have been struggling to stay commercially competitive in a world increasingly reliant on online shopping. Of course, malls were designed with the secondary purpose of serving as community hubs. While this was an intended purpose of the shopping mall, it often comes to question whether shopping malls serve the community. While it’s predicted that as many as 250 malls may cease operations within the next decade, one indicator of a healthy mall is its function as a social space. At the turn of the millennium, Lexington was home to three shopping
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Only the Fayette Mall, the largest of the three malls, remains open today. In my study, I take a deeper look into the Fayette Mall, and observe how people use and interact the space of the west wing of the mall (also known as the Dick’s Sporting Goods entrance) in hopes of gauging the health of the mall as a whole.
Methods of Research
This visual ethnographic project required a variety of research methods, in order to accurately understand how people are using the space of the mall I am interested in. Observational field notes were taken on site noting the various ways in which people were observed to be using the mall. These field notes were taken when a novel use of the space was observed, or at the end of an observational session. Another invaluable research method was the use of questionnaires in which a number of mallgoers were asked why they came to the mall, how long they planned to spend at the mall, and asked their age. These were taken verbally, with a digital log of their answers taken on my smartphone. Of course, being a visual ethnography, this project
The primary problem would be the structure of the organization. This is due to the fact that there are thirteen departments in total which would lead to the failure of the ability to concentrate on long term viability of the business.
The suggestion regarding the shopping mall becoming its own liturgy is understandable. People are often fascinated by the mall’s environments. In addition, the mall may become a place of worship to an extent. Spending unhealthy amounts of time at mall may have attachment effect. Nevertheless, attending the mall,
Merchant elaborates on the extent of managing exotic gardens inside buildings particularly the mall to recreate a heavenly atmosphere. She considers the work that goes into maintaining these gardens to keep them pristine, from the expensive water works and pesticides utilized to keep the unclean and destructive nuisances from diminishing the aim for perfection in a desirable atmosphere (p.5). These gardens produce the atmosphere to make people happy and content. The greenery provides the feeling of being outdoors while truly being completely inside. She indicates mall landscaping is inspired by surrounding environments that are
I walked into the front of the store to see a crowd of people searching for a good grocery cart. One that wouldn’t wobble every second that you pushed it. I took a look at many of the faces as they were beginning or ending their shopping experience. The people walking in looking for a cart seemed unsure or not pleased to be there in the first place. While the people leaving looked happy and eager to get home. I took this as a clear sign that this was not the most enjoyable place to ...
Ron Johnson spent a great deal of time and money to promote his ideas of “stores-within-stores” by turning floor space into an area to house several branded boutiques. He did this in order to attract a target market of a wider demographic which includes age, gender, and generation. One of the m...
Pahl, Jon. (2003). The Mall as Sacred Space. In Behrens Laurence & Rosen Leonard (Eds.),
In 1945, Sam Walton opened his first variety store and in 1962, he opened his first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. Now, Wal-Mart is expected to exceed “$200 billion a year in sales by 2002 (with current figures of) more than 100 million shoppers a week…(and as of 1999) it became the first (private-sector) company in the world to have more than one million employees.” Why? One reason is that Wal-Mart has continued “to lead the way in adopting cutting-edge technology to track how people shop, and to buy and deliver goods more efficiently and cheaply than any other rival.” Many examples exist throughout Wal-Mart’s history including its use of networks, satellite communication, UPC/barcode adoption and more. Much of the technology that was utilized helped Sam Walton more efficiently track what he originally noted on yellow legal pads. From the very beginning, he wanted to know what the customers purchased, what inventory was selling and what stock was not selling. Wal-Mart now “tracks on an almost instantaneous basis the ordering, shipment, and delivery of literally every item it sells, and that it requires its suppliers to hook into the system, enabling it to track most goods every step of the way from the time they’re made and packaged in the factories to when they’re carried out store doors by shoppers.” “Wal-Mart operates the world’s most powerful corporate computing system, with a capacity (as of late 1999) of more than 100 terabytes of data (A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes, or roughly the equivalent of 250 million pages of text.).
Goss argues that developers and designers of the built environment, specifically shopping centers and malls, use the power of place and understanding the structural layout of the space to boost consumption of the retail profits. Shopping centers are separated from the downtown area of shopping, either by distance and/or design. These establishments emerge for many to be the new heart and location for public and social life. In his article The "Magic of the Mall": An Analysis of Form, Function, and Meaning in the Contemporary Retail Built Environment, Goss also argues that the regulation of the spaces within the mall creates an atmosphere of "community" rather than one that is "public". This article’s main argument is that developers manufacture an illusion of doing more than just shopping when designing malls and shopping centers.
...act, Langham Place is not alone. There are more and more shopping mall operates their business in the same manner as Langham Place. Though these shopping centres tried to make breakthrough using different methods, it seems that impressions of these shopping malls are blurred in eyes of public. Since these shopping malls are usually invested by large-scaled enterprises with great powers, merchants without resources to apply different tactics like these large-scaled shopping mall, will one day be eliminated. Those survivors will become copies of one another. As Shoppers' Paradise famous for selling products with different characteristics, if similar shopping malls are seen everywhere and merchants with distinguishing feature disappears, Hong Kong will soon lose its competitiveness among tourists. Resent among society may also arise and raise different social problems.
Display, researchers have documented how people use places to communicate qualities of the self to self or other. Example: given the emphasis on individualism in American society, middle-class individuals frequently personalize domestic environments to express their personhood as unique selves (Altman and Chemers 1980; Duncan 1982; Hummon 1989) Affiliation, people use places to forge a sense of attachment or home. Such identification with place often involves emotional ties to place, but it may also involve a sense of shared interests and values. This identification with place is often experienced as a sense of being “at home”- of being comfortable, familiar, and “really me” here (Relph 1976; Rowles 1983; Seamon 1979).
"There's No Place like the Mall: U.S. Shoppers Unplug." Newswire. Nielsen, 23 May 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Malls are convenient places to shop. They provide shoppers with abundant and secure parking areas. Shoppers need not drive around for fifteen minutes looking for a parking place, nor need they be afraid to walk to their cars after they have completed their shopping. Malls are usually totally indoors so people are comfortable why they shop. They do not they do not have to be subject to the elements as they go from store to store. Finally, the most convenient aspect of the mall is its one stop shopping experience.
Going to the mall is like being at a zoo. Herds of inconsiderate teenagers crowd the walkways, girls fight over the best pair of shoes, and the merchandise is thrown all over the place. Imagine being able to have a stress free day of shopping without annoying kids running around and the ease of looking at perfect displays that have not been touched by the grimy hands of children. If you could eliminate the younger population from the mall, shopping would be much easier for everyone. Parents can enjoy their day out, girls-day won’t be interrupted by kids running a muck in the store, the employees jobs will be easier by not having to fix the displays that were messed up by children, and the amount of merchandise stolen will decrease if the younger population sticks to online shopping! Shopping
all a bit too much. It seems the whole world has gathered here just to
Places such as coffee shops and lounges have been included in the structures of these malls to give consumers a more comfortable feeling of relaxation. Instead of shopping and leaving people are more enticed to sit back and relax. Enjoying a meal and a cup of coffee while shopping has become a time consuming yet enjoyable process for most shoppers. It's suggested that the longer a person stays the more money they are bound to spend. Mall managers and scientist are not attempting to manipulate the consumer but more so enhance their shopping experience. There's also a sense of creativity and connectivity found in calming environments such as coffee shops that establishments like shopping malls are trying to bring to the shopping