The Carefully Crafted Culture of Shopping Malls

Shopping malls (arguably) do the majority of their work in merchandise sales and the socialization of the adult public to behave/dress/interact with the world in specific, capitalist, mainstream ways. I want to argue, however, that this process begins during childhood, molding and shaping children as cogs in the machine of modern American consumerist society. Indeed, young children do not have the purchasing power of their parents or guardians, but the shopping mall acts as a space of socialization.

Most of the children I know have fond memories of visiting various costumed characters at the mall. Where do children go to see Santa at Christmas? The mall. Thinking critically, this locale for Santa has a number of implications. The long line of children waiting to see Santa each year points to the importance of consumerism during the holidays. Children tell Santa what they want for Christmas, the parents are conveniently nearby to overhear, and afterward the parents can quickly and easily pick up these items. Santa is irrevocably tied to the success of mall and department stores, and this link likely does not go unnoticed by children. Christmas becomes more about efficiency than thoughtfulness, and the notorious “mall Santa” is just one component in this well-oiled machine. Linking Santa with shopping malls early on creates waves of lifelong consumers. It trains adults to head to the mall when they think of Christmas, since some of their most memorable holiday season moments as children took place on Santa’s lap at the local shopping mall. Who knows how much the presence of the mall Santa has affected the bottom lines of budgets across malls in America, but the connection is undoubtedly important. In this respect, one could also argue that the shopping mall Santa upholds the culture of those in power: a conservative Christian middle/upper class who celebrates Christmas rather than Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or another holiday. The occasional presence of the Easter Bunny character at shopping malls at Easter time also reinforces this Christian power structure in shopping malls. This is some of the important cultural work of shopping malls.

In terms of linking shopping and citizenship, The Washington Post article “He Told Us to Go Shopping. Now the Bill is Due” was quite insightful. In our country’s (and the Bush administration’s) nationalist, pigheaded unwillingness to adapt, we attempted to “have our cake and eat it too” as we tried to change the way the Middle East lived without sacrificing our own consumerist lifestyle. No wonder Americans get a reputation as bullheaded and empire-minded. The passive nature of the American civilian’s involvement in the past 8 years of American history has been an example of “what not to do,” and Obama’s administration has a heavy load to carry. Sure, the collapsed economy has forced Americans to give up some of the luxuries and excess that has come to personify our country to the rest of the world, but more is needed. I speculate that one of the major challenges our country will face will be trying to overcome this grotesque, excessive “buy buy buy” lifestyle without further hurting the economy. The malls will need to adapt to meet the desires of an American public facing a recession while still turning a profit.

So what is the solution? In my opinion, the “green revolution” is the answer. Once again, we must look to the past as an example. Consider America’s financial difficulties facing Clinton as he began his first term. The technology explosion helped kick our country back into a “boom time,” which bounced us back into financial comfort for a while. Shopping malls flourished during this time, as seen in the “History of the Shopping Center and Mall” article. Consider the Mall of America, for a local example. Consumerism during the technology boom helped our country and the economy during this time, and I feel that investing in a “green revolution” could do the same thing. If malls stay in touch with the desires of their clientele, then they could be on the forefront of this new mode of consumerism that could bring us back into the upswing of the cyclical nature of consumerism, mall success, and the economy.

Finally, shopping is linked in a huge way with identity. I took a geography class at the U in which this very topic was discussed at length. Consider “mall walkers”—this activity links feeling good and getting exercise (a healthy lifestyle is central to the identities of many people) to the mall. People begin to rely on the mall for involvement in their lifestyle and become attached to the mall in terms of their identity. But more importantly, have you ever seen anyone take pictures in the mall? Try it, I dare you. A security guard will promptly approach you and ask you to stop. My professor explained that the reason nobody may take photos in a shopping mall is because shopping can be seen as sinful, indulgent, and something that people may not want to admit. Mall designers want people to become lost in the mall, wandering from place to place without any critical thought. But the minute that a camera appears, people snap out of that “blissfully oblivious shopper mode,” similar to the fact that you’ll never find a clock in a mall. It is almost as if some people do not want to be “caught” shopping. Clocks and cameras bring people back to the “reality” of their own lives, exiting the escapist dreamland of the shopping mall. Every once in a while people want to imagine a new identity for themselves—think about the people who try on Prada dresses who could never afford them—and malls are uniquely designed to meet the needs of identity escapism.