Malls
(quoting yarrun in a members-only thread that veered off-topic)
That said, you are probably kinda right about them being one of the few common areas. The only type of space that I can think of that has similar availability is parks. But in increasingly suburbanized first-world countries where you get a focus on car transportation between buildings (or technically their parking lots), libraries are usually only open at sane hours of the day (due in part, though not only, to lack of funding), and (as much as it annoys me) the only other good places tend to be places like bars. Maybe hotel lobbies. Otherwise, people usually don't talk about meeting outdoors, and most buildings are privately owned.
Ehh, I'm not sure. I, for one, rarely go to malls, and I can assume that some poorer people would probably also rarely go to them. It also probably depends on the kinds of shops that the mall offers -- e.g. high-end retailers vs. discount retailers, as well as any niche stores such as tea stores or sports paraphernalia stores or tabletop gaming stores.Malls are one of the few common areas in society. Adjusting for
location, you can see someone from any race, culture or social class
there.
That said, you are probably kinda right about them being one of the few common areas. The only type of space that I can think of that has similar availability is parks. But in increasingly suburbanized first-world countries where you get a focus on car transportation between buildings (or technically their parking lots), libraries are usually only open at sane hours of the day (due in part, though not only, to lack of funding), and (as much as it annoys me) the only other good places tend to be places like bars. Maybe hotel lobbies. Otherwise, people usually don't talk about meeting outdoors, and most buildings are privately owned.
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I have occasionally gone to a mall to buy something, but it is rare, and in those cases, I generally just bee-line to the shop I want to go to, and then bee-line to the exit.
Maybe I'm just, like, too cheap, or something. I just don't really feel like buying stuff, and it kinda feels like the entire point of a mall is to get me to spend my money, while at the same time I just don't want to spend any money.
Later on I got disillusioned about such things and it stopped being fun.
(I'm going to visit Lenox Square in Atlanta later this week, too ^_^)
Yeah, same here.
I never really understood that malls were for buying stuff; as a little kid it was more like, malls were an interesting place where there were lots of people and lots of stuff going on.
And then, later, we moved to a place where the mall was kinda deserted and all we did in the mall was getting new clothes, which I didn't really need that often, but my mom knew how to play the department store membership discounts right.
the shopping centres in Gloucester are not that big and not really special enough to justify the train ticket unless i want something specific
American TV shows make malls seem a lot more exciting than IRL shopping centres i've been to, but i don't know if that means American malls are legitimately more exciting or if that just means the people who write those shows like malls more than i do
and browsing is fun sometimes but i have to be in the right mood... normally the only things that you can buy that really grab my attention are books and different varieties of tea, and i have to be careful about those because i can't usually resist the urge to buy them
but the idea of going to a mall just for the sake of hanging out seems weird
I used to like going into bookstores, at least, although those seem to be a dying breed.
There are still plenty around here, though that may be because it's a university town.
There's a Barnes & Noble and a used bookstore about ten miles up the road, and that's it as far as I know.
I feel like most malls are aimed at pre-college teens and adult women, and don't have much to offer me. I do like music stores and book stores, but those are getting rarer and smaller, especially inside the malls.
What about flea markets (boot sales, whatever)? Those are at least slightly more likely to have interesting wares, and the crowds that shop there are more interesting too.