So yesterday I was sitting in the Prudential Center Mall waiting for a colleague to come so we could meet a client (whose entrance is inside the mall). I sat around for about 20 minutes whilst waiting, and did what I love to do - people watch. At 10:10 in the morning, there aren't too many people in the mall, but there were some: People who work in the nearby office buildings, people actually shopping, and tourists. I noticed that several groups of tourists would pass by and go into the stores I was near (Aldo & Arden B.). What I found odd is that they were all American tourists with tweenage and younger children going into generic mall stores in another part of the country.
I've always thought that the point of going on a trip is to experience new things - unfortunately (and I'm not at all the first person to say this), the chance to experience new things (if you're a shopper, this means new places to shop that don't exist in your market) is dwindling. However, if you are a tourist, and you decide to spend your out-of-town money at the same mall stores you have in Columbus, OH, then isn't it really your fault there aren't any options? You're reinforcing their business model by buying from them...
Either way, the mass homogenization of the shopping landscape in America sucks, but the American consumer's need for the familiar also sucks - perhaps more.
1 comment:
Agreed. I love nothing better than a Banana Republic in San Francisco. NOT.
One nice thing to buy locally is jewelry, actually. There are lots of "casual jewelry stores" with interesting stuff all over, none of which is mass produced.
But I will say, if you're a sad business woman with precious little free time and too much travel, sometimes killing 2 hours in san jose at the outlet mall is just the ticket to happiness.
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