Who Is Addicted To The Mall Of America By David Guterson

Essay 1
In the essay, “Enclosed. Encyclopedia. Endured: The Mall of America”, by David Guterson, he describes about the Mall of America and how people essentially get addicted to shopping in the Mall of America. The Mall of America near Minneapolis is the largest shopping mall and family entertainment complex in the United States which attracts most of American as well as foreign tourist. The author describes that the Mall of America is compared to Mecca, heaven or a church, referred to as pilgrims. In other parts he describes that the mall is referred to as “an addiction” or a drug. In my opinion, I think that an addiction is more persuasive because many people get attracted to go to the Mall of America. Moreover, the mall has variety of fun places as well as the indoor theme park which fascinates most people towards the mall.

Firstly, people can get addicted to shopping just like any other drugs.

I believe many people adore shopping and sometimes shopping can relieve our stress. I think it is good to shop once in a while but not always, because a lot of shopping may cause financial problems which could increase our stress rather than relieve. The author interviews a woman named Laura, she said “I am constantly suffering from megamall withdrawal. I come here all the time” (Guterson 105). Then her friend Kathleen replied, “It’s a sickness. It’s like a cocaine or something: It’s a drug and I need to be here” says Kathleen. This become as a shopaholic because for mall shopaholic, shopping triggers some part of their brain and make them feel happy and excited for making purchases. We buy a lot of things which we do not need then we just waste our money. I think we need to reduce buying things which is not important for us because we worked so hard to earn money and in a minute we could waste all the money. People should have more maturity. We need to think wisely, spend less and save more money for our future

needs.
Secondly, the Mall of America attracts most of the customers by the way it is designed. It makes people get more addicted to the mall without their realization. However, sometimes some people can no longer control themselves from buying things in the mall because there are various stores in the mall with some strategies to try to get shoppers to buy products. The salespeople are using some professional skills such as marketing, advertisements and so on. They let the customers feel and trust their products. Customers will not be hesitate to buy some expensive products because they fully trust them and willing to pay more. The author cites a woman by the name of Laura, and she says, “I just need to be here. If I buy something it’s an added bonus.” (qtd. in Guterson). This what makes the shoppers buy more and more. Firstly, the associates will show the customers with some benefits so that the mall receive more advantage in future.
In conclusion, the Mall of America is a mall that most of the shoppers get addicted to it after they being there. It is a famous, unique and a beautiful mall. I have never been to the Mall of America. I would definitely like to see what their tactics and strategies are in order to attract most shoppers. I feel that I want to go there and have a look at why the mall attract most of the people until they get addicted to it; and how are their reaction when they see different type of things in the mall. I would like to go there once and have a look at all the places in the Mall of America because by reading this article, it does attract me somehow. I would mostly love to go there but not to spend a lot of money on buying unnecessary things, but to have a look and gain some experience on why people consider this megamall which is the Mall of America is an addiction mall.