Malls are really depressing

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I still like a good mall. The Millenia Mall in Florida killed a lot of the other malls nearby though so it's the only one worth going to.
 
The only thing I generally don't like about malls is how similar they look in the inside. Whoever designs them ought to try to make them less homogenous although the typical mix of stores doesn't help much.

A long time ago I went to a shotengai, which was pretty cool. It's an outdoor mall in Japan, so it's not as antiseptic feeling as an empty, indoor mall.
 
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FStop7 said:
Again, how are you reading so much into a bunch of stores? It's the modern equivalent of a market square.
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You can choose to see more in it, or you can choose to minimize it down to a place where you take what you want and you give monies to walk out with it. *shrug*
 
I still enjoying visiting the malls on limited occasion, particularly during the holiday season. South Coast Plaza here in Southern California looks especially nice during that time.

The 'mom and pop' PC hardware stores are what I miss the most out of this transition to online purchasing. SoCal used to be littered with these tiny specialty PC stores; heck we even had a magazine called "Microtimes" that was dedicated solely as an advertizing machine for these stores which my buddies and I in high school used to salivate over. I suppose there's still Fry's for that but I don't get the same vibe as I do when walking into a cramped dingy store with cigarette stains burnt into the carpet, reams of unopened boxes scattered on the floor, and motherboards/cpus displayed behind glass cases...a bygone era indeed.
 
tapedeck said:
Funny this thread came up as I went to my local mall for the first time in a year or so yesterday. It actually had a decent amount of people walking around (granted many were 13 y/o girls) and not many stores were closed. But yeah malls are a dying breed for sure.
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Yeah, that's kinda like one near me. Used to be a fairly busy place with some decent stores, but now half of the stuff left is mostly crap, and they got rid of most of the stores I liked. Hardly anybody in it (or at least anyone interesting to me...) Another mall down the road is under a similar situation despite being considerably bigger.

I'd argue the Outlet Malls near me have it the worst. Hardly anyone there at all. Kinda creepy sometimes.

Only decent mall we got left is a good 30-40 minutes away, but I hate going there often due to the drive and there's usually a ton of people there. (Which wouldn't be that bad, but traffic sucks.)
 
I find malls to be oddly fascinating, both in their function in today's world and the people who go to there(and the employees, the shoppers, the...tourists? All of them). I go there like once a year and people-watch, or I buy something from a store I've never been in. I see people who just hang around all day, I see people who hate being there. I see people honestly trying to shill their products to whoever's in ear shot, and I see people who look like they couldn't give a damn about their job. It's almost like this whole world here, interconnected with the style and times of 2012, but at the same time completely shut off from it all.

Every time I stop by(which is again, very rare) I always make an effort to go to the arcade, Tilt. Mostly just to see if it's there, and every time, it's still there. There almost never anyone there. The games available are an odd mishmash of light gun games, fighters, DDR, and racers. There's a Confidential Mission I always liked, but the gun on the left is broken and the right gun's aiming is off by a mile now. Daytona USA has been there since at least 1998, and its still the same "DAYTONNNNNNNNNNNNNA LETS GO AWAY!", blasting away, never changing as the world goes on around it.

It's oddly nostalgic, and it's just so...curious. This thing that still exists somehow. I have no real use for it, but...I'm glad it's there for whatever reason. Reminds that not everything has changed.
 
The Easton's centre is probably one of the best in Ontario, try cloverdale or Newmarket - THOSE are depressing.
 
akira28 said:
I think they're depressing as fuck but not because of the setting but because they're these gigantic temples of capitalism, people spending themselves to the edge of insanity, and subjecting themselves to slow mental torture just for the chance to do it all again. And the things they purchase never live up to the expectations or the dream, they never quite fill the hole we make for them in our lives. Our stuff is forever cursed to disappoint us, our lives devoid of all meaning except to collect more disappointing stuff. That's why malls are depressing as hell. I love it. White walls, blue filtered light coming from the skylight. Sitting alone on a wooden bench, on the 3rd tier across from the Apple store, watching young girls walk by, oblivious to the future or the past.
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You mom bought you a crappy $30 Android phone instead of that iPhone you really wanted, right?
 
bengraven said:
The worst part is that, outside of the major department store retailers (Sears, JC Penny, etc), none of the non-clothing stores ever have sales worth anything. Everything always costs retail.

Book stores are the worse. We had a bookstore in a Twin cities mall that literally marked up the prices from cover. So you'd have this 16.99 sticker and peel it off and see the cover cost was $12.99.
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That what really fucked up malls.
Who the hell would go out of there way to a far away mall & deal with the parking to buy something that what would literally be cheaper everywhere else.
 
The upperclass malls here in Indonesia are amazing. So many beautiful women, most of them dress up for it too. It's fantastic. Malls are almost a necessary here because shopping outside in 30+ degrees celsius is just torture.
 
-COOLIO- said:
The blown up pictures of what appear to be physically perfect women and men looking hot in the vendor's clothing make you feel physically inadequet.

The blown up pictures of people on some exotic beach or jungle expedition, make you feel like youre unadventerous and wasting your life on the routine day-to-day.

The pictures of rich business men wearing their expensive trinkets makes you feel poor.

The fact that everybody in all these pictures have eternally broad smiles makes me feel like im missing out on some fucking amazing joke.

There's the packed apple store which makes you feel like humans are shallow and needlessly materialistic. (not a swipe at apple or tech, but the store is ALWAYS packed)

There's store names like forever 21 which make you feel like you're ancient at 22.

There's the 50+ aged women trying in vein to recapture their youth at the make up booths

gamestop.

my legs get tired.

There's usually buyers remorse when you walk out of the mall and you realize those ads played you like a chump.

I dont know what my point is really, i guess that the whole point of ads is to make you feel inadequate but itd be nice if they toned the ads down to a semi realistic level... or something. oh well, i typed this much, there's no turning back now.

anything im missing?
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I've literally never felt any of this at a mall, I love going to the mall.. I think you just have low self esteem
 
Zaptruder said:
But you're probably one of those people that go and try it on and then go back home and buys it online if you like it.

Well, it's thanks to people like you that retail is dying the death of a thousand cuts.
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No. I try and buy in store. Thanks for the bullshit assumption though.
 
I haven't been to a depressing mall in SoCal.
I just hate huge crowds and a apart from some juice and desert places, I abhor the food court.
 
Devolution said:
Eh I'd rather have more specialty stores. Buying jeans and bras for me is like boom boom done. It's awesome.
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Yeah that would be nice... a little depressing that malls have become such a homogenous thing throughout the world. You go in one and find the same few big name stores that you see everywhere else.

If it was up to me, I'd redesign malls to be mixed-used community spaces that encouraged active mixing of many demographic groups.

Retail would be changed to lifestyle demonstration centers. Sales would occur through the internet and delivered home to you later, with sales rung up at the counter receiving referral fees, and or brands could pay them to advertise their wares. People selling the stuff would actually know how to use the stuff, and demonstrate best case uses, mixing in specific products with general know-how and advice.

e.g. - selling laundry related stuff - Sales person uses X washer, Y detergent, Z iron, throws in tips on how to get this done without fuckin' detergent powder residue all over the clothese, etc.

I dunno. Maybe it's not a viable idea... but it would seem to me something that's much more pleasant and much less soul sucking than the current model of retail establishments that we have.
 
The most depressing thing about malls is that it always feels like the place to go when you're bored, but there's never, ever anything to do there.
 
-COOLIO- said:
I dont know what my point is really, i guess that the whole point of ads is to make you feel inadequate but itd be nice if they toned the ads down to a semi realistic level... or something. oh well, i typed this much, there's no turning back now.
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Only if you care. They are ads. Made up. Sure the places and people are real but come on. Yes there are people more sucessful and hotter and younger than you.

dealwithit.gif
 
There is this one mall in Orlando, FL called Festival Bay Mall. Shit's fucking creepy as hell, 75% of it, maybe more, is just straight up empty. You're just walking down hallway after hallway of glass with fake storefronts and it's just empty. Mainly just a few big stores branched together by hallways. Does have some cool shit though.

I generally avoid malls, especially during busy times(weekends/holidays). I always end up dodging a few people walking towards me out of kindness, get pissed off that I'm the one making an effort to dodge, and then I just start shouldering the hell out of everyone. Too many people. Too much bullshit. Purchasing stuff online is the way to go.

Rather go to the mall than Walmart though. That's some next-level soul-crushing right there.
 
lunarworks said:
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EPIC.


(also, if you GIS "epic" you're greeted by five pages of demotivational pictures loaded with huge beautiful tits and cleavage...that's fairly win if you ask me)

See You Next Wednesday said:
That what really fucked up malls.
Who the hell would go out of there way to a far away mall & deal with the parking to buy something that what would literally be cheaper everywhere else.
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I think mall rent is what caused this. It was a well known fact that rent in my hometown mall is what killed it. The guy was charging 2000 dollars a month while the local strip mall was charging 900 dollars for even more space.
 
Having worked at a few retailers located in malls (from Apple to Macy's), I can truly say. I fucking hate malls. The only thing that made it bearable, was Chick-fil-a.
 
Malls don't bother me too much:
I go there to get what I want and leave. I don't like wandering around them.
 
I guess I've never really looked that deeply into it. I just go and buy what I went for and leave. Maybe eat something depending on what is in the food court.
 
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