An American Holiday Tradition
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger
I went to the mall the other day. This is unusual for me because I could not recall the last time I was in a mall.
It was Christmas season and the place was buzzing with activity. People were all over the place shopping and walking around the place. I found this pleasantly surprising because I did not realize people actually went to the mall anymore. If my neighbor is any indication, I though people did all their shopping on-line; my neighbor has a box from Amazon or some other company arrive every other day.
Based on my limited observation, tho, malls in America are thriving. At least at Christmas time. I was in Del Amo Mall in Torrance, CA, which at one time was the biggest shopping mall in the world. Mall of America in Minneapolis surpassed it and a few others probably have too, but I can tell you this is a large mall.
It sprawls over giant parking lots and even over streets. I was meeting people at a courtyard and had to ask directions twice to find the area. It was a Friday evening and the crowd was mostly teenagers, which have long accounted for a lot of food traffic in malls, except here they were all stylishly dressed well behaved.
The mall itself was interesting. All the shops were gleaming and it had a big atrium. It even had seats in tiers, looking like a coffee shop or a lounge in a hotel bar, next to an escalator. It was nice, even luxurious. A tall Christmas tree stood at the top of the escalator.
The courtyard was a grass area where a local ballet company was performing and this area was framed by two levels of shops with a second-level walking deck. Again, it was very nice. I was impressed.
It occurred to me that malls have been forced to evolve and improve to compete with on-line shopping. Del Amo has done a nice job with it and, obviously, attracting foot traffic.
In America, going to malls in December is a holiday tradition there’s even some – Turkey Creek in my hometown of Knoxville, TN is one such example – that are not one continuous building but rather a series of buildings spread out like houses in a subdivision.
Sometimes, I wish the seasonal shopping in the USA was more like Europe, where people gather at Christmas markets instead of driving to malls. That to me seems a much better way to get in the spirit of the season, how matter how impressive we make our malls in America.
Happy Holidays from PubClub.com!
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