{"id":2665,"date":"2020-12-17T11:45:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T11:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140375"},"modified":"2020-12-17T11:45:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T11:45:14","slug":"why-do-i-love-the-mall-when-i-hate-consumerism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/17\/why-do-i-love-the-mall-when-i-hate-consumerism\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do I love the mall when I hate consumerism?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"aside-logo aside-logo--right aside-logo--ask-umbra\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/ask-umbra\/\"><img width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ask-umbra-twitter2.jpg?w=150&amp;h=0&amp;crop=1\" class=\"category-logo category-logo--ask-umbra\" alt loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p><img class=\"snowglobe\" src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-image-nostalgia.png\" \/><span class=\"qa\">Q.<\/span> <strong>Dear Umbra,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I always crave a visit to the mall around the holidays. Why do I find it so soothing? I consider myself an anti-consumerist!<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-one grist-right-fc medium-hide-fc\"><img data-embiggen-src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-joseph.png?w=400\" data-embiggen-size=\"400,252\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-494560 aligncenter no-zoom\" src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-joseph.png?w=400\" alt width=\"200\" height=\"126\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"reference\" data-ref=\"rc-one\">\u2014<\/span> <strong>The Irresistible Naughtiness of Yuletide: Thrills In Malls<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"qa\">A.<\/span> Dear TINY TIM,<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time for a little \u2026 SHOPPING HISTORY! While I am loath to consider my youth historical material, based on your question I suspect you and I are of a similar age. Especially for those of us who came of age in the pre-smartphone era, shopping centers were one of the few accessible, teen-oriented social spaces.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-two grist-right-fc medium-hide-fc\"><img data-embiggen-src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-eve.png?w=400\" data-embiggen-size=\"400,252\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-494561 aligncenter no-zoom\" src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-eve.png?w=400\" alt width=\"200\" height=\"126\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>As a teenager, I spent so, so, so much of my free time at this vast outdoor mall in Pittsburgh called The Waterfront. I would meet one of my closest high school friends at the Popeye\u2019s across from the Home Depot before heading to <span class=\"reference\" data-ref=\"rc-two\">the AMC to catch<\/span> the last screening of some Jude Law <a href=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/climate\/is-climate-change-coming-for-the-christmas-rom-com\/\">rom-com<\/a>. I first laid eyes on the (truly awful) boy who would occupy all of my crush energy for the entirety of 10th grade at a birthday party at P.F. Chang\u2019s. I consumed approximately a thousand Starbucks mochas and brick-like brownies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-three grist-right-fc medium-hide-fc\"><img data-embiggen-src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-shannon.png?w=400\" data-embiggen-size=\"400,252\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-494562 aligncenter no-zoom\" src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-shannon.png?w=400\" alt width=\"200\" height=\"126\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>But you can\u2019t exactly separate mall culture from consumer culture. In between these landmark moments of adolescence, my friends and I spent endless hours in ambient shopping. We tried on super-low-rise jeans and pastel bikinis and midriff-baring T-shirts, imagining how this or that new addition to our \u201clook\u201d could reel in the attention of one idiot boy or the other, as if that would resolve any festering sense of inadequacy or sadness that we all suffered. Good old American materialism had successfully sold our short-circuiting baby brains on the idea that shopping equals happiness<span class=\"reference\" data-ref=\"rc-three\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The sociological significance of malls and shopping centers to teen culture is well-trod territory, and you can find any number of 10,000-word academic papers explaining that teens need spaces to socialize, and there simply weren\u2019t that many places for our teenage selves to hang out outside of our parents\u2019 homes! And places you\u2019re meant to shop in are certainly designed to be pleasant. An enormous amount of research has been poured into creating inviting commercial spaces that also put you in the mood to treat yourself to a little splurge.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-five grist-right-fc medium-hide-fc\"><img data-embiggen-src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-laura.png?w=400\" data-embiggen-size=\"400,252\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-494646 aligncenter no-zoom\" src=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/lc-laura.png?w=400\" alt width=\"200\" height=\"126\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span>FRIDAY<\/span><br \/><strong>For your consideration: Fruitcake<\/strong><br \/>A callback to a pre-modern era, an exercise in delayed gratification, and lots of brandy.<br \/>By L.V. Anderson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>While it used to be enough to marvel at the wares themselves, shopping has since become an <em>experience,<\/em> even a form of escape. There are hints of this even in Emile Zola\u2019s 19th century novel <em>The Ladies\u2019 Paradise<\/em>, which is about a relatively modest shopkeeper who develops a super-grand department store<span class=\"reference\" data-ref=\"rc-five\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cA feeling of comfort penetrated [the shoppers], they seemed to be entering into spring after emerging from the winter of the street. Whilst the piercing wind, laden with rain and hail, was still blowing out of doors, the fine season was already budding forth in The Paradise galleries, with the light stuffs, soft flowery shades and rural gaiety of summer dresses and parasols.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Prescient, Monsieur Zola. Lush department stores gave way to the malls we\u2019re familiar with today \u2014 sprawling retail temples in which you could easily make a day of wandering. But as the popularity of online shopping grew over the 2000s, many malls began to fall into decline. Today, there are roughly 1,000 still in existence, but experts say about a quarter are expected to close in the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>A McKinsey report from a few years back detailed how companies could cope with the impending demise of not just the mall, but the brick-and-mortar shop in general. Consumers want <em>experiences<\/em> with their <em>things<\/em>, they wrote; you need to give them a reason to want to cross your threshold that amounts to more than a merino wool sweater-cape at 30 percent off. \u201cMall operators,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/business-functions\/marketing-and-sales\/our-insights\/the-future-of-the-shopping-mall#\">they wrote<\/a>, \u201cmust envision themselves no longer as real estate brokers, but instead as customer-facing providers of shoppable entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe title=\"How to build a better shopping mall\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pPpI8NHb2fo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>To an environmental writer, there may be no more cringeworthy phrase than \u201cshoppable entertainment,\u201d because it transforms the act of buying things into an activity rather than a means to procuring needed items. Those associations make up kind of the foundation of the meaningless consumerism that drives unnecessary environmental degradation and carbon emissions! \u201cWe need to find happiness and community and value in activities other than shopping,\u201d said the writer and activist Naomi Klein in a <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/359778899\">panel on climate-conscious design<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, absolutely, say it a thousand more times. And yet, TINY TIM, I don\u2019t think that means you need to perform some kind of <em>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em> brain-wipe of your fond retail-oriented memories. Intellectually, I take no pleasure in the fact that the backdrop to so many of my teenage memories were designed, at least in part, by the megacorporations behind brands like Hollister, PacSun, Abercrombie, and Gap. Atonement for my materialist 14-year-old sins is part of why I feel the need to expend tens of thousands of words beating the \u201cdon\u2019t buy stuff you don\u2019t need\u201d drum over and over and over in this column.<\/p>\n<p>But emotionally? Those stupid red Starbucks cups <em>do<\/em> spark warm memories of hours spent wandering from store to store picking out presents for friends. If I walk by an Abercrombie storefront <em>to this day,<\/em> the scent of the perfume that wafts copiously out of it still stirs up the very specific intimacy I had with my friend who used to work there. The solace of these chain stores themselves, the orderliness and warm lights and promise of some new little treat to help make up for the misery of December in Western Pennsylvania has not released its grip on the pleasure centers of my brain.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t have to change what comforts you, but you can control how you react to it. Socialization and culture are very powerful forces, and your memories are indelibly formed by them. I truly find nothing wrong with the idea of wandering a Christmassy shopping district for the nostalgic ambiance alone, which is what it sounds like you enjoy the most. If shopping is supposed to be an experience, perhaps it doesn\u2019t have to be tied to buying things. Someone worked really hard to set up those lights! Real human labor went into making and placing all those red and gold globes and evergreen sashes! It arguably <em>needs<\/em> your enjoyment to not go to waste!<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re still concerned that you won\u2019t be able to resist the call to pull out your credit card, may I recommend meandering through those painstakingly decorated shopping districts after hours. I actually think it\u2019s really lovely to walk through these areas at night during the holidays, when all the twinkle lights are still on and the dimly lit holiday decor feels genuinely peaceful. And it feels kind of illicit, which is the best possible callback to <a href=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/climate\/everything-i-learned-from-the-o-c-in-2020\/\">simpler teen times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>American culture is horrifically flawed, particularly with regard to its role in climate change, and it absolutely needs to shift. But I don\u2019t believe that forgoing all your happy associations with materialism is a necessary precondition for becoming more climate-conscious. You just need to revisit how you seek out or recreate those associations now that you are a more aware grown-up.<\/p>\n<p>Comfortingly,<\/p>\n<p>Umbra<\/p>\n<aside id=\"aside-437210\" class=\"aside aside--437210 aside--fy21-winter-appeal-bottom-of-post-ask aside--post_after aside--membership\" data-hide-donor data-hide-subscriber>\n<\/aside>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2020\/12\/17\/why-do-i-love-the-mall-when-i-hate-consumerism\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q. Dear Umbra, I always crave a visit to the mall around the holidays. Why do I find it so soothing? I consider myself an anti-consumerist! \u2014 The\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[395,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2666,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions\/2666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}