Shopping - Losing The Hometown Feeling

Shopping - Losing the Hometown Feeling

In the city of Columbia, there is one mall and a downtown shopping area called "The District". In The District, shoppers can find many one-of-a-kind shops like Leo's. Leo's is a second hand clothing store where a person can find vintage clothes to purchase or rent. There are also many different kinds of restaurants to soot anyone's palette. The District also offers several different fine appeal stores. Unlike The District, at the mall shoppers will find all the major chain stores and a cafй court for dining.

With the development of the suburban malls in the late 1950's, shoppers have been spending their money in malls instead of in downtown business districts. This is even true of shoppers who have to go out of their way to shop in the malls; they will bypass downtown stores (which they might have gotten to by convenient bus) to drive to the brightly light and weather-free shopper-heaven. The result, some people claim, is the demise of the central urban commercial district, Downtown. But why are Americans so easily lured to shop in malls in the first place?

People do not like weather. They like to be indoors whenever possible, even on nice days, and they are willing to pay a premium to be protected from the elements. If they could find someone who could afford it, they would even put their sports stadiums under a gigantic bowl. Being able to shop in a covered indoor facility has attracted many people. With downtown shopping people are exposed to the cold, heat, rain and snow, which detours many shoppers. They love to stay indoors for a day of shopping, perhaps never seeing the sun from the time they first enter until they leave, hours later, relieved of money, oxygen, and much more.

Shoppers in the United States love convenience. During the crush of major holidays, malls offer plenty of convenient free parking. The mall offers plenty of docking points -- usually next to major commercial outlets -- for cars that circle in search of the closest slot and an easy entrance unlike the downtown shopping experience in which a shopper usually has to drive around for ever just to find a parking space and then have to continue to plug a parking meter with coins in fear of getting a parking ticket.

The mall offers an extraordinary variety of products under its one gigantic roof. Specialty stores and boutiques offer items that people do not realize they need until they are put under the spell of brightly lighted, beautifully furnished window after window of beautiful things. Malls are built to respond to Americans' insatiable desire for stuff either that, or a generation of Americans has been genetically engineered to respond to the sellers of stuff. Either way, it works. Yet downtown shopping areas have even more specialize stores and one of a kind stores, locally owned and operated. Shopping downtown one might find things a bit more expensive and limited on product selection.

To many the mall feels safe: it is well lite, warm, dry, and busy. Senior citizens are invited to do their walking exercises there in the early hours; physically challenged people easily meander the smooth floors with no curb or stairs businesses in motorized carts; children are amused by clowns and fed at convenient cafeterias in the Food Court, on the other hand, the downtown shopping is often in sad repair. Parking is difficult, if not dangerous, and until you get through the door, it is all outdoors. To get from store to store, shoppers must expose themselves to heat, cold, rain, snow. There