A couple of observations from newly-minted mall-walker Lawrence Henry:
Allow that everybody needs to prepare food, thus cookware -- though surely three specialty kitchenware shops overdo it. And accept that everyone eats -- though stores specializing in giant pretzels, cookies, sweet buns, and candy abound. Of the 142 businesses, including the four giant department stores, which simply sell the same things the mall shops sell all over again, at least 40 sell something for which there is no real life utility at all.
Imagine selling Nordic Traks in Uganda. Or Build-a-Bears in Afghanistan. Or opening a Brookstone store in Haiti. These are the products of insane prosperity, simply flexing its muscle. On the other hand, Urban Made Impressions appears to sell totems, and its products might appeal in primitive societies indeed. ...
What does it all mean, as I tramp four or five times a week through my mall, a small one as malls go? In American society, commerce has achieved such a hyperbolic apogee that we engage in flourish and decoration for its own sake. We are in a new age of rococo. We create, we sell, we buy just for the sheer heck of it.
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