Today a couple of my friends and I headed to Woodland mall and this completely changed my viewpoint on malls. The outside of the mall was, with a few decorations, as dull as always without windows. However as we entered the mall, I began to notice different things. The first thing I noticed were the high ceilings decorated with warm, bright lights. I don't why I hadn't noticed this before but the lights were really bright making the places accessible day and night. As I looked around I noticed plants and trees like John Pahl said in the reading. The next thing that I noticed was that nearly all the stores had posters saying something about sale. The word "sale," even though I might have know that it doesn't contain any special meaning after seeing it too many times, grasped my attention every time I saw it. Both "Persuaders" and John Pahl had mentioned that stores needed something "catchy" to grasp the attention of their customers. Also as I went from each store to store I got a feeling of an invitation as all the stores had walls of glass and either their doors were open or there wasn't a door at all.
When I got to the middle of the I entered into Starbucks and ordered some coffee. What was special about this Starbucks was that it was open. No doors or anything was blocking me.
As my purpose of going to the mall was to get my iphone fixed, I headed on to the Apple store. The Apple store was packed with people of all ages. There were kids playing games, teenagers surfing the internet and adults trying to buy products and people working. As soon as I stepped into the store a person came up to me and asked if I needed any help. As I saw people of all ages coming together at a common place it felt like a community. Also at random places of the mall they had set up a playground for kids and had set up couches where people could rest and form a community.
One of my friends who is also this class wanted to buy a cap. Just out of curious asked why people would want to buy a cap. He gave an example of a sports cap. He said that if a person is a fan of a certain sports team he wants to buy something that represents his team to fit in.
One last thing that I noticed as I read in The Shopping Mall as "Stairway to Heaven" was that the mall, a supposedly public place, was more of a private place. Just like the students in our reading, my friends and I asked around people if they thought the mall was a religious place which they all said no. After about 15 minutes of interviewing people, a security guard stopped us and asked us to stop "bothering" the customers.
The mall felt like a church because different stores were inviting people from various backgrounds to buy their products. Just like a church, people in the mall come together and form a community of all ages.
Thanks for your comments, Han Gil. It's interesting that you mention the mall's capacity to encourage community. What is the difference between a place where people happen to be gathered, and a true community in which people are connected and accountable to each other? Are those in the Apple store experiencing community...or do they just happen to be in the same place at the same time? This can happen at church, too...
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