Americans shopping malls

The "death sentences" expressed by the market, coincide with a clear recovery in consumer spending of American families. So it is the very model of the mall that loses, not the big distribution in general. And for once the suspect number one is neither called Amazon nor Ebay. While online business is always gaining new enthusiasts, overall online sales revenue is about one-tenth compared to "meat and bone" trade. The fatal defect in the shopping mall formula is precisely that it is a container of distribution chains such as Sears, Lord & Taylor, who turned to the American media family. But the "average" is no longer in a people of hourglass consumers, where the highest and lowest share of purchasing power is strengthened.

For several generations of Americans shopping malls have been not only a convenience that simplifies life (all shops in one place only, to spend once a week loading the car trunk), and hence an emblem of the American way of life, but often also the only place of "socialization". This is a phenomenon on which entire sociological essays have been written, such as Robert Putnam's famous "Bowling Alone" (playing bowling alone). Compared to a modern Alexis de Tocqueville, Putnam explored American society by revealing the decay of traditional commonplace living places. Trade unions, parties, clubs and civic associations, even churches have lost much of their historical role as centers of encounter and collective life. For many young people in the middle-sized cities in the deep America, away from metropolis such as New York and San Francisco, the shopping mall was the only place to "tow", or just meet friends after school, have a chat, spend time. Now it's Facebook.