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Death and life essay
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Death and life essay
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The fall of Shopping Malls A mall used to be a staple in American suburban communities, but is the rise of online retailing to blame for the death of shopping centers around America? Malls are shutting down across the nation; analysts estimating that 1 out of every 4 malls will close their doors for good in by the year 2022 (“The Death and Life,” 42). More than 8,600 stores have closed down this year alone from lack of business circulation and many businesses are close to the same fatality. There has been an immense decline in retail jobs; an industry that gave so many opportunities is now struggling to keep employees. Over 448,000 jobs within department stores have been lost since 2002, while online retailers have created around 178,000 …show more content…
People from all walks of life had a place to gather altogether, a forum that offered shopping, foods, and various other services almost mimicking a market square during the Grecian times. By the 1970s, lands were being cleared to accommodate large shopping centers in suburban areas across America. Malls were definitely most appealing to the youth that allowed pop culture to thrive in a mass setting. Various game shows, iconic pop stars, and classic movies rose to fame in the malls settings because that was where most people could be reached in a mass setting. More and more malls were continued to be built and all in a very close distance to each other. Times in 1992 reported that there were forty-eight malls within a ninety-minute drive from the center of Times Square in New York City (“The Death and Life,” 42). Between 1956 and 2005, over 1,500 malls had been built, but sadly the growth rate of malls was starting to exceed the popularity rate (“The Death and Life,” 42). When the year 2010 came around, mall activity during the holidays had decreased by 50%, which was always the most active time for …show more content…
The Harvard Professor of Business, Leonard Schlesinger, says that malls “were built for patterns of social interaction that increasingly don’t exist” meaning that since the digital age has taken hold of the lives of society, no one feels the need to go interact in a public space (“The Death and Life,” 42). Many malls have already shut down across the nation and being bought for office space or other business ventures, but there are quite a few malls in America that are dodging casualty by accommodating to the new taste of the current era. Centers that offer luxury brands like Gucci or Louis Vuitton are thriving because they offer a something that cannot be found on Amazon. Other malls found that people enjoy being entertained rather than shopping through lavish movie theaters, a quick game of bowling, an outdoor shopping experience, or offering chic dining rather than fast food options. Having better dining options has been found to make or break a shopping center and that has been proven through the survival of big box stores. Big box has seen the most growth in sales greater than Amazon and that is due to their offering of food. Paul Ellickson, professor at the University of Rochester states that, “Club Stores, supercenters, and big-box grocery stores all involve some element on
Over the years, the American department store has developed and evolved as not only a commercial business but also a cultural institution. While it has weathered many storms and changes since its inception and throughout history, its most predominant enemy has been a change in the lifestyle of the American people (Whitaker, 2013). As the customer’s needs and wants have shifted, department stores have struggled to keep up with demands. It has been argued that the decline of the department store has been ongoing for the last 50 years (Whitaker, 2013). This dissertation aims to understand how the department store has historically played a role in consumer culture and spending, and additionally, how this has evolved and changed in today’s retail market. Although department stores may not be able to take all the credit for inventing modern shopping, they certainly made its conventions and conveniences commonplace. They set a new standard for the way the consumer should expect to be treated, the type of services that should be provided, and the convenience that should attend the process of acquiring the necessities and niceties of life all in one place. They made shopping into a leisure pastime. This environment meant shopping was a means of freedom to look around, pick up objects with no obligations to buy. As one historian remarked, department stores: “encouraged a perception of the building as a public place, where consumption itself was almost incidental to the delights of a sheltered promenade in a densely crowded, middle-class urban space” (Whitaker, 2006). Although this perception and view of the department store has changed over the years, this paper aims to follow the trail of how and why that happened.
How exciting malls are in terms of architectural and interior design! Just by going around the heart of any major city and seeing new steel and glass structures stretching towards the sky, many people may feel that shopping malls are a perfect destination for a combination of shopping and entertainment.
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,
In recent past across the United Kingdom, many prominent retail chains have closed down their business operations at a high rate of more than 30 stores per day, as the economic depression continued. The United Kingdom’s high street went suffering from the declining consumer confidence and spending as a consequence. Some retail outlets have been put under receivership as well as under administration. High-profiled administrations included retail giants such as Woolworths, Comet and Blockbuster.
“The Sign’s of Shopping” by Anne Norton is an essay that depicts the many ways in which malls, and shopping catalogues sell products to the society by selling to them who they could be with those products. Norton’s central argument is that malls engage people in advertisements that are promoting them to desire the product and integrate to certain identities. She explains how malls are misleading and tend to appear to be a location of diversity and freedom, but the mall actually causes individuals to strive for a certain identity. People are exposed to ideas like the ones in the mall window displays, or shopping catalogs, which shape who they could be through having certain things. She provides a great example, “neither freedom of speech nor
Downtowns used to be vibrant places filled with businesses, people, and unique architecture. However, this has completely changed. Many downtowns have lost their businesses, people, and uniqueness. This is because of three things, the first one is Euclidean zoning. This separates land based on its use. This affects the variety of buildings and infrastructure in an area. Euclidean zoning assigns a purpose to a plot of land. The next thing that has led to the loss of vibrancy in downtowns is the G.I. bill, which resulted in the creation of new subdivisions throughout the US. Another factor is the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. These three things led to the creation of shopping malls. These shopping malls were built the same in different parts
The postindustrial American society defined themselves with reference to the goods they owned and not how much hard work they had put into the production of the goods. At the time, striving for material goods was a defining factor in individuals’ lives based on the television and advertising practices at the time. The society viewed shopping malls as crucial places of commerce and places from which people define themselves. Incidentally, all malls were built as consumption places and not places for production activities. As such, there were places for final consumers of goods and services. In other words, the society spent hours eating, relaxing and shopping in the malls, the convenience of worry zones as well as living a consumer’s dream. The notion that the consumer would always want to consume more of goods every time, was thus
Whenever we go out shopping or relaxing at malls, we actually don’t see or recognize any effects of malls as we mostly go there for these two reasons. Malls are an integral part in the lives of America. They are shopping centers that have created a lot of buzz in many writers. This is because we have more malls in America than high schools. Malls have received praises from people like James J. Farrell, Jon Pahl and George Lewis who view malls as not only shopping centers but also as places that provide a reflection of the American culture and serve as centers of pleasure and entertainment. In contrast, William Kowinski and David Gutterson criticize malls for just being an artificial environment that creates disorientation among American shoppers. In my opinion, malls are just magnificent commercial buildings that create a sense of false dreams and imagination.
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.
Customers go their shopping to act as social experience where they could meet friends and develop new relationships. Traditionally open markets are being replaced by regional shopping malls as social meeting places in particular for the teenagers.
"There's No Place like the Mall: U.S. Shoppers Unplug." Newswire. Nielsen, 23 May 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
greater range of goods and is a competition to high streets. As Colin J. Davis (1997: 6 - 7) claims
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.
People are always going to go shopping. A lot of our effort is just: 'How do we make the retail experience a great one? '” - Philip Green
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