Introduction
There are more malls than high schools in the United States of America. The number of malls in the country has increased markedly and the amount of revenue generated by malls has more than doubled in the last twenty year years. A single mall generates more than a million dollars in annual sales. Malls are among the leading employers in the United States of America. There are more than 10.6 workers who are employed in the malls, which is slightly less that the entire farm workforce in the country. The malls are also sources of state and federal revenue, contributing more than 46 billion dollars in taxes to the taxpayer (Farrell, 2008). The increasing numbers of malls in the country is bound to bring the aforementioned figures up as the benefits that the malls present to the Americans reach more people. Economics aside, malls have become part of the American culture and much more than buying and selling goes on in the malls. Malls are one stop avenues for family entertainment and the presence of a wide variety of merchandise under one roof makes them the preferred shopping destinations. The cool ambience and the air conditioned comfort that cannot be found in the traditional shopping avenues is another value addition that is driving more and more Americans to the malls. Moreover, they have become arenas where the brands are fighting it out for the attention of the customers.
The Cultural Phenomenon
It is documented that most Americans conduct their shopping and spend a considerable part of their lives in the malls. Gone are the days when it was only youngsters who used to spend most of their time in the malls, the mall culture has caught up with customers of every age and everyone is being attracted towards the them. To start with, shopping is part of the American culture in the contemporary setting. The average Americans consumes considerably more than the Americans of the recent past or the Americans of the early twentieth century making shopping part of their lifestyle. Since the malls make shopping more pleasurable, it is hardly surprising that they have become the tools to engender this shopping culture. Shopping in the past used to be a boring affair where people had to purchase different things at many places. There were separate places for buying food, clothes, furniture, and electronics which this made shopping very cumbersome. The entry of the mall culture has therefore made shopping more convenient than ever because of the possibility of finding virtually everything under one roof. Malls in the US have the rare ability to confound the normal assumptions because of their aesthetic value. The most important measure of worth in America is authentic aesthetics and the epitome of this is the universal city walk. The architecture is out of this world and the beauty of the whole thing is quintessentially idealized in the architecture. Most of the malls in the city of Los Angeles are stucco boxes which have aesthetic power derived from the bright facades that have very beautiful tiles, playing accessories, screens and murals. The tenants of the city walk are also free to add decorations to the place making it one of the most aesthetic malls in the western side of the United States of America. It has become one of the most beloved hangout joints for all ages and it draws people even from other states that come to savor its beauty and rich heritage.
Malls have better aesthetic designs than the traditional shopping stalls which has added value to the shopping culture (Postrel, 2007). The beauty of the malls has attracted Americans to the malls and every mall has its own crowd puller that attracts people towards it for pleasurable shopping. The malls have become part of the public architecture that provides public space, serving the some purpose as the old school town and city halls. The design of the malls provides a space for public settlement meaning that much more than buying takes place in the malls.
There are artistic attractions with their continuous display of aesthetic design both in packaging and production and these aesthetics act as real crowd pullers. In the American contemporary culture, malls are replacing museums because of the commercialized art that is increasingly being packaged in the malls, making them centers of artistic attraction. The wide array of artifacts that is found in malls is essential for cultural education and they have evolved from just economic destinations to cultural institutions.
Malls in the US have the rare ability to confound the normal assumptions because of their aesthetic value. The most important measure of worth in America is authentic aesthetics and the epitome of this is the universal city walk. The architecture is out of this world and the beauty of the whole thing is quintessentially idealized in the architecture. Most of the malls in the city of Los Angeles are stucco boxes which have aesthetic power derived from the bright facades that have very beautiful tiles, playing accessories, screens and murals. The tenants of the city walk are also free to add decorations to the place making it one of the most aesthetic malls in the western side of the United States of America. It has become one of the most beloved hangout joints for all ages and it draws people even from other states that come to savor its beauty and rich heritage (Postrel, 2007).
Americans love diversity and this is one thing that malls have created thus pulling a large segment of the average Americans to them. The retailers in the malls have the uncanny ability to use the cultural values of the Americans to stimulate sales and the reinforcement of these values distracts the Americans from other monotonous values like the fight for justice and equality (Cohen, 2002). This brings diversity to the life of the American by drawing them away to the usual and the common and creating other forms of lifestyle.
Malls give Americans an opportunity to make statements. They provide answers to vital lifestyle questions just like schools provide answers to educational questions and churches to religious ones. This is where the Americans make aesthetic and value statements and decisions about what is valuable and what is not are made in the malls. Malls are where different elements meet. They are the places where the manufacturers, the merchandisers, nature, art and family meet to create an entirely new specter of the American lifestyle. The meeting of the aforementioned elements helps in the answering of the different cultural questions in a way that no other place can manage. This is one of the reasons why malls are the favorite destinations for the Americans
Malls are also part of the American psychological and sociological culture. A mall may be just a building, but inside it has a lot of psychological and sociological implications. There is a lot of variety in the malls and this variety cannot be seen in terms of the different items on sale but also on the level of the different cognitive responses that they evoke in different people. This means a mall is a different thing to a man, to a woman, to a child, and even to that worker in the mall. What they are to blacks is different from what they are to the whites. The rich and the poor view them differently also, and thus they become different social constructs with different cognitive responses to different groups. The bottom-line is that the malls can be a powerful statement expressing who one is and who they want to be, through the things the do within the confines of that building called the mall.
The activities that go on in a mall are diverse and they are representative of a subculture. Some people go there to relax and develop relationships; others go there purely for entertainment while there are others ho go there to stay fit. To some, malls are therapeutic centers that provide a solace from the harsh realities of life. Sociologist George Lewis notes that malls have become some sort of civic centers, points where people gather for diverse activities ranging from economic, entertainment, therapy and aesthetic enjoyment. The order in the malls provides security to many people, making malls integral parts of the American lifestyle and an emerging cultural phenomenon that is going to shape the way in which Americans live (Lewis, 2007).
Negative Effects of the Mall Culture
The malls may have a wide range of benefits but they also come with some negative effects. The first negative effect is the influence they have on the economic decisions the Americans make. Americans rarely budget and when they budget, their budgets are disrupted by the influence of the malls. The malls contribute to a culture of impulse spending that is detrimental to the family economics. A mall is not a place one can easily control the urge to spend and most Americans have found themselves in these economic trap.
Secondly, the special treatment that the customers used to get in the conventional shopping stalls is no longer there. There may be high quality products and services in the malls but the personal touch with the attendants is not there because of the large number of people. One is therefore treated just like any other customer and there is lack of that traditional personal touch that used to make shopping a friendly affair. Finally, malls are responsible for a psychological disorder called malaise which can degenerate into a worse condition called zombie effect. Spending too much time in a mall can have disastrous effects like overstimulation, anxiety disorder, development of phobias especially for closed spaces and even the inability to relate to others. All these conditions that are psychologically caused by to much addiction to malls are called Mallaise (Kowinski, 1985).
Conclusion
The influence that the malls have on the lives of Americans is immense and this influence is likely to increase as the number of malls goes up (Gibian, 1997). The value the malls add to the lives of the Americans is highly positive and they have inevitably become part of the cultural phenomenon of the Americans. They have created an entirely new way of life and a new way of expression, separating the modern Americans from their past contemporaries. However, it is important that the Americans to beware of the documented negative effect of the malls because they can hake long lasting economic and psychological implications.
References
Cohen, E. (2002). Mall as Threat to Democratic Values. Web.
Farrell. J. (2008).Shopping for American Culture. Boston: Writing across the curriculum. Bentley: Longman
Gibian, P. (1997). Mass culture and everyday life. NY: Routledge
Kowinski, W. (1985).Mallaise: How to Know If You Have It. MA: Morrow.
Lewis, G: (2007).The Mall as Refuge: Writing Across the curriculum: Bentley: Longman
Postrel.V. (2007). The Mall as Setting for Authentic Life: Writing Across the Curriculum Bentley: Longman