Shopping malls make a lot of sense when seen from a
practical perspective. Almost everything that one requires for day-to-day
living is bundled up under one roof. Malls these days would usually have a food
court, stand-alone eating joints, fashion stores, movie theatre, super-market,
entertainment stores and other shops for practically everything a person needs.
It wasn't like this before. I have grown up watching independent
shops. Most of the times, these shops were based on the ground level of
residences facing the street. Some used to be standalone as well. I have seen
streets known for a particular kind of need: streets known for food joints, for
latest in fashion, for jewelry, etc. There were certain areas shopping and food
just as there were residential areas.
Even after having lived with malls for over a decade, I don’t
feel comfortable with the concept. They provide convenience to shoppers and
businessmen, but something is amiss for me with this concept.
Is it that malls are a new way of living; something that I
have not grown up with; and hence I can never completely adapt to it? Or is
there more to it?
My discomfort is probably from the lack of emotions that I
feel inside the malls. I do not mean that people don’t treat me well enough in
the mall. I am usually impressed by good services with some occasional
exceptions. However, when I look back at the individual shops of the olden
days, even if they didn’t provide proper service at times, there were real
emotions that could be seen. There were times when some neighborhood shopkeeper
would not pay attention to me even if he didn’t have any customers, some who
would ask me to come and sit inside the counter and chat, some who would always
be in a hurry to finish off the transaction, etc. Some of the people working in
these shops were those I had seen for years. With some shops, I could not distinguish
its staff whenever I would think of them. People in these shops were more of
themselves than trying to be someone that they are supposed to be in a store
which is supposed to deliver a certain kind of experience.
The difference that I feel is that I used to see people own
their shops. It was a part of their life the way they had chosen it to be. It
was not just a job for them even though it provided for their living. It was
them. From the way things would be arranged, to the way people would be served
to the entire experience inside the shop; it reflected the personalities and
the emotions of the people who owned and ran the place.
Inside any store at a mall, I don’t feel like I am within
people who are different in their own unique way. They are usually being nice
and being nice is a requirement. When they are rude it is usually because there
is something bothering them but not always their nature to be rude. The stores
have a certain kind of a look and an experience and that has been created to
evoke certain kinds of emotions towards the brand. While the effort on the part
of brands to deliver on a certain kind of an experience does come across, it
also leaves me craving for emotions which erupt from people and not from
marketing plans.
