You know the old saying about the only thing that is constant is change.
It sure applies to what’s been happening with what once seemed as American as apple pie.
The shopping mall. The mall we knew as kids has changed.
When the mall was the place to hang out and it was THE place to go to shop. You could window shop at the mall, you could get everything you wanted at the mall, in one place. You could stroll through the mall, eat at the food courts at the mall and chatting at the mall. You could spend hours at the mall.
But over recent years, things have been changing.
Because in today’s consumer environment a lot of shoppers shop at the virtual mall, the on line mall. Buying things on Amazon and on other shopping websites. Thus the shopping holiday we call Cyber Monday which is coming up soon.
But shopping on line has its drawbacks. You do it alone. No human contact, no human experience and no social interaction. It’s part of the virtual and anonymous digital world in which we live.
And that’s where there are some changes going on at the shopping malls. A new style of mall is in the works that may attract people who have become lost in the virtual world. Or at least the folks in the mall business hope so.
And that may be why you see lots of malls doing lots of things to give us something we’ve lost. That’s the experience. Not with a mobile device or computer but an experience with other people.
And it would be nice to see that become as American as apple pie.
(Photo credit Getty Images)