I took my daughter to the “Mall” in our town last night to get some shoes and see the Easter Bunny. Granted, it had been a while since I had been there as I don’t have a lot of extra money these days to just shop, but what I saw there broke my heart. There were hardly any people walking the mall and even a few of my favorite stores had been boarded up. (So much for that Petro and orange tea I was craving.) As we walked around with the place to ourselves I tried to figure out just exactly why this was happening. There isn’t another mall around us close enough to be competition yet this one was empty. Then it hit me! (The answer…not the guy hawking cell phone cases…) The internet has destroyed our malls. True, I’ve blamed the internet for destroying marriages and people’s general intelligence before, but this might be the last straw. Back in “the day” the mall was the place to hang out. It’s where people went when they didn’t really have anything else to do. On a Saturday that is where all the teenagers were. It was the place you could see all your friends in passing or just congregate at the food court and just be. It’s the place where you could see what was trending in fashion and hear the latest music, play arcade games, even buy that CD you had wanted. Now, everyone does the same things on the internet. You want to hang with your friends you have a group chat on Facebook or you Face Time with them. If you want to see what is trending you just Google it or read Entertainment on line. You can literally do everything you want on there as a youth except maybe get food. You can shop, socialize, play games (sorry arcade) and even listen to and download music. People “know” each other, but never actually get together. Another disgrace is if these businesses go out, we will be stuck paying shipping forever!
I spent 7 years working at a department store and I have to say it remains my favorite job I ever had. I cried when I quit. I got to look at pretty clothes all day, I got a discount and I met all kinds of cool people. Granted, I was on my feet for 9 hours a day, but I was THIN! If the malls close then all the high school students who were to work there will be forced into fast food jobs or work at a factory where the clothes get shipped from (if they are even in the US much less our state.) Don’t let this happen! Go out and shop till you drop this weekend. Pick things up. Turn things over. Fall in love with the ACT of shopping…you won’t be sorry…unless of course what you just picked up has just been handled by a sick 4 year old…then maybe. I’m just sayin…
jo would know 