Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Okay, I confess: I went to the mall yesterday, because I had to buy to some software from the Apple store!  I could've gone to CompUSA, but that would've made for a longer drive.  But I absolutely share the hatred of malls, probably because I find the entire teenage status-seeking scene that is always inherent to malls to be so nauseating.  (Is it a sign that I'm getting old when I start feeling the urge to tell younger girls to put some fucking clothes on, and younger guys to pull their God-damned pants up, when I go there?)  It's not the chains that bother me so much, so long as the chains I like stick around.  Keep Apple and American Eagle in the mall, or somewhere nearby, and I won't have a problem.

I never shopped at them, since I was never there for a long period, but I always enjoyed walking through the sort of mini-markets in London's immigrant neighborhoods.  Whenever I'd walk through them, I'd think to myself, "Wow, this looks a lot like those old photos of New York from the late-19th/early-20th centuries."  It's an experience, and, with the New York image in mind, I can't help but think of what it will look like fifty years from now.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 10:32:19 AM EST
And who here remembers how funky Covent Garden was just after the fruit and veg went off to Planet Stratford?

And how they swore it would be developed sympathetically and affordably for little retailers and the Retail Chains would NEVER get in yada yada.

It's not even been "gentrified" - it's been "Rentrified" for greedy bastard landlords to make a killing.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 12:06:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Those are two brands, like so many, that have online stores, so a trip to the mall is about our habit to demand "I want it now".  Once you know their products and like the quality, there is little need to check it out in person.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
by metavision on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 05:22:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series