Goss argues that developers and designers of the built environment, specifically shopping centers and malls, use the power of place and understanding the structural layout of the space to boost consumption of the retail profits. Shopping centers are separated from the downtown area of shopping either by distance and/or design. These establishments emerge for many to be the new heart and location for public and social life. In his article The "Magic of the Mall": An Analysis of Form, Function, and Meaning in the Contemporary Retail Built Environment, Goss also argues that the regulation of the spaces within the mall creates an atmosphere of "community" rather than one that is "public". This article’s main argument is that developers manufacture an illusion of doing more than just shopping when designing malls and shopping centers. The developers and designers disguise the building’s identity while mediating the materialist relations of mass consumption. Goss focuses on five areas in his article. This first area is looking at the mall in a cultural context and the connection between ...
Here I go again preparing to go to the store Stater Bros and checking my shopping list to see what to buy. As I walk through the store to my left, I can see the organic food and wind up at Services Deli while when going to my right. Buying prepared food saves me time cooking at home and the store has exclusive recipes for everyone. “Human begins walk the way they drive, which is to say that Americans tend to keep to the right when they stroll down shopping mall concourses or city sidewalks,” according to Malcolm Gladwell in his article “The Science of Shopping” (1). He explains how consumers’ shopping behaviors are affected by walking from scanning from left to the right and how it is easier for shoppers to do. Charles Duhigg, writer of The Power of Habit, says that “Realization came from a growing awareness of how powerfully habits influence almost every shopping decision. A series of experiments convinced marketers that if they managed to understand a particular shopper’s habits, they could get
Companies realize what people need and they take it as sources to produce commodities. However, companies which have famous brands try to get people’s attention by developing their products. Because there are several options available of commodities, people might be in a dilemma to choose what product they looking for. In fact, that dilemma is not real, it is just what people want. That is what Steve McKevitt claims in his article “Everything Now”. When people go shopping there are limitless choices of one product made by different companies, all choices of this product basically do the same thing, but what makes them different is the brand’s name. Companies with brands are trying to get their consumers by presenting their commodities in ways which let people feel impressed, and that are some things they need to buy. This is what Anne Norton discussed in her article “The Signs of Shopping”. People are often deceived by some famous brands, which they will buy as useless commodities to feel they are distinctive.
The suggestion regarding the shopping mall becoming its own liturgy is understandable. People are often fascinated by the mall’s environments. In addition, the mall may become a place of worship to an extent. Spending unhealthy amounts of time at mall may have attachment effect. Nevertheless, attending the mall,
Using the quote by Habermas as a starting point, select up to two buildings designed in the twentieth century and examine what ‘sudden, shocking encounters’ they have encountered, or created. Analyse the building’s meanings as a demonstration of an avant-garde, or potentially arriere-garde, position.
In a world ran by money, Paco Underhill has discovered a way for stores to generate a larger profit. In “The Science of Shopping”, Malcolm Gladwell reports on retail anthropologists to examine their theories they use. Gladwell does this to inform store managers on how to set up their stores to maximize their profits. Paco Underhill has shopping down to a science. Inside American Eagle, Meijer and Hollister his theories of the decompression zone, invariant right, and zoning can be found.
...ed the lifestyle of Canadians. Their effect on Canadians contributed to the making of our consumer capitalist society. While department stores introduced several innovative ideas to the business world, their negative impact significantly contributes to our materialistic lifestyle. Donica Belisle’s “Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada” clearly define these aspects and describe the mass retailers relationship between the public, its stakeholders and Canada’s national identity. The author’s well researched information and various perspectives of a situation support her arguments effectively. In conclusion, Donica Belisle’s book excels in its presentation as it is well written and well organised. She successfully communicates her main points and eliminates bias by presenting both sides of a story, making this a good book for others to read.
The author of “Shopping at J-Mart with the Williams”, Lindsay Coleman, discusses race, ethnicity, and belonging in South Park. She talks about how South Park joins the “long tradition of decidedly impolite, racially charged comedy” (Coleman 131) through rhetoric. Coleman goes on to give specific examples of racially based actions in different episodes to show the commonality of this rhetoric in South Park. She explains how typical black stereotypes are portrayed in some episodes to help highlight South Park’s use of racial comedy. She also explores the role reversal of race through “social condition” (Coleman 131). In America, most people associate wealth with white men/women, but in South Park, the black men and women are the wealthy people.
Merchant elaborates on the extent of managing exotic gardens inside buildings particularly the mall to recreate a heavenly atmosphere. She considers the work that goes into maintaining these gardens to keep them pristine, from the expensive water works and pesticides utilized to keep the unclean and destructive nuisances from diminishing the aim for perfection in a desirable atmosphere (p.5). These gardens produce the atmosphere to make people happy and content. The greenery provides the feeling of being outdoors while truly being completely inside. She indicates mall landscaping is inspired by surrounding environments that are
Postrel develops her support of national retailers throughout the essay, offering the opinion that it isn’t the stores that give places their character, but instead, aspects like the terrain, weather and culture that do (Postrel 347). While terrain, weather and culture can set apart regions, such as New England from The Deep South, and Southern California from the Midwest, it’s the community that gives each town their own special character. A community consists of the residents, their restaurants, hardware stores, pharmacies, ice cream parlors, farmers markets, and so on. These places, and the interactions that occur daily at each establishment, are the fabric that differentiate them, and create the breeding ground for diverse characteristics to flourish. While Postrel argues that wildly different business establishments across America in the past is a myth , it’s actually not necessarily that the products that varied from store to store, but more the aforementioned factors that truly set ...
Ron Johnson spent a great deal of time and money to promote his ideas of “stores-within-stores” by turning floor space into an area to house several branded boutiques. He did this in order to attract a target market of a wider demographic which includes age, gender, and generation. One of the m...
A sociological observation was conducted at York dale Toronto shopping center and food court at various time intervals. There were different spectres of ethnicity and different ways people acted. I chose this mall because it is one of the largest malls in Canada and the problem of reactivity could be avoided.
Consumer culture plays a key role in the economy. Today, the ways in which urban spaces are arranged facilitate the consumption of goods. One only needs to look to modern cities such as New York, London or Tokyo in order to recognise the countless forms of advertisement intended to lure the mass population into spending money on various merchandises, from novelty items to luxury products. The use of built structures to facilitate the display of retail products for the consumption of the masses is nothing new. After its renovation, Paris became a model innovative city planning and construction for a lot of modern cities that exist today. The wide boulevards and open spaces engaged the mass population and encouraged consumerism.
Framing Essay The theories in Jameson’s text “Postmodernism and Consumer Society” can be used to analyze Barthelme’s short story, “I Bought a Little City.” In Barthelme’s story, the city owner made modifications to a good city with the intention of bettering it. Instead, he stripped away the city’s individuality and originality. Jameson’s text allows us to interpret Barthelme’s short story and gives us a revelation of the main character’s behavior and his reasoning behind it.
Shopping and philosophy: Postmodernism is the new black. (2006, December 19). The Economist, Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/8401159.
Malls are convenient places to shop. They provide shoppers with abundant and secure parking areas. Shoppers need not drive around for fifteen minutes looking for a parking place, nor need they be afraid to walk to their cars after they have completed their shopping. Malls are usually totally indoors so people are comfortable why they shop. They do not they do not have to be subject to the elements as they go from store to store. Finally, the most convenient aspect of the mall is its one stop shopping experience.