Trip to Woodland

Today I went over to woodland Mall. As I walked around and observed the numerous shops, the main thing that struck me was the sheer quantity of signs and advertisements everywhere. In The Persuaders, they talk about how signs and advertisements have to be more and more imaginative in order to attract the customer. However, I found that the vast majority of them were quite unimaginative and had the same message: clearance or sale. Clearly, the idea that you are getting more for less money is an effective mean to attract people. This is due to the religion for which malls are the churches: “the religion of market” that Jon Pahl talks about, which considers money the most important thing. Malls are set up in order to make us spend as much time there as possible, so as to gain our loyalty. What I noticed is that the way the mall is organized, as you walk out of a shop, you usually have at least two shops in front of you. This gives the mall a good chance that you will visit one of these, which prolongs your visit.

Another thing Jon Pahl talked about was how Malls often “disorient visitors … in order to reorient pilgrims toward the purveyors of commodities”. I noticed that none of the many signs and maps pointing visitors to different shops indicated where the exits were. This means the visitor will probably have to walk a bit further to find the exit: all the more chances for one of them to see something else interesting.

I did not end up buying anything, simply because I did not need anything, and did not feel like spending extra money when I could probably get whatever I wanted for less online.