4 ms·

Completely agree that weather makes a huge difference to how much you enjoy strolling outdoors over being in a mall. My main complaint about malls is how _loud

Completely agree that weather makes a huge difference to how much you enjoy strolling outdoors over being in a mall. My main complaint about malls is how _loud_ they are: visually and auditory-ly (someone please tell me what the right word is). Malls are crowded, adorned in bright, garish colors, filled with stale food court food smells. There is very little seating other than at food courts, water fountains are hidden far away in some corner, loud music plays almost all the time, or it's noisy because of all the people. In sunny Silicon Valley, parking is a nightmare but there'll only be one bike stand hidden in a 50 acre space. It somehow has all of the worst features of a busy bazaar with almost none of the good (local products, "authentic"-ness, ability to haggle etc). Just standing in a shopping mall stresses me out. It's possible that the present state of the art of mall design ticks the boxes for the largest audience possible and I'm the weirdo.

bussierem 9y ago
RE: your grammar question: "Auditorily"
- jogjayr 9y ago
  Ah of course. Thanks
DeltaCoast 9y ago
I've also heard/used 'aurally' src - http://www.dictionary.com/browse/aurally http://www.dictionary.com/browse/aurally
taway_1212 9y ago
I think it's just that the things you want don't translate into a good return on investment for the owners and so they don't get implemented. (i.e. customers would like them, but it would not translate into a increase in shopping large enough to actually justify the investment from the owner's point of view). My wider (and a bit tangential/ranty) theory is that the most tacky, tasteless and lacking self-control customers are actually the most profitable, hence businesses generally tend to pander to them. It's just much easier to extract unreasonable amounts of money from someone who's unreasonable (an adult child basically) than from someone sensible and reasonable, so for example us techies are not the target for a lot of companies.
- tspike 9y ago
  There's no way the returns on investing in making the mall a pleasurable place to hang out in the short term outweigh the costs, but if people depended on malls as part of their area's social fabric, I doubt they would be facing this kind of longer-term decline.
  - replicatorblog 9y ago
    This really depends on which mall you go to. The Mall of America is not far off of Disney's Epcot center in terms of the amenities it provides. The Galleria in Houston is almost a city unto itself. I remember seeing a bridal party walking through it once, I'm guessing there was a chapel or function hall inside. A typical mall in Tampa, Florida, or Salem, NH has less charm, but those areas aren't working from a high base to begin with. In dense urban areas, malls tend towards the high end and can be quite nice. The Shops at Copley Place in Boston is fairly high end in terms of shops and the architecture is nice. The Westfield in SF is nice in my recollection.
    - collinmanderson 9y ago
      Yup. Mall of America literally has a zoo (Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium) and an indoor amusement park.
  - wahern 9y ago
    People do depend on malls as part of their area's social fabric. That's more true today than when Mall Rats was filmed, even though it's less cool now. It's the social fabric itself, not just the malls, which is disintegrating. Suburbia was never economically sustainable.
    - ethbro 9y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14400448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14400448 This has been discussed here before, and seems to be a bit of a blind spot for HN. Imagine you live in a place where there's only one "mall" nearby: that's most of America (geographically speaking).
photojosh 9y ago
Not an answer to your question exactly, but to the whole premise: Gruen transfer [0]. We have a great TV show by that name here in Australia that deconstructs advertising. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer

bussierem 9y ago

RE: your grammar question: "Auditorily"

jogjayr 9y ago
Ah of course. Thanks

DeltaCoast 9y ago

I've also heard/used 'aurally' src - http://www.dictionary.com/browse/aurally http://www.dictionary.com/browse/aurally

taway_1212 9y ago

I think it's just that the things you want don't translate into a good return on investment for the owners and so they don't get implemented. (i.e. customers would like them, but it would not translate into a increase in shopping large enough to actually justify the investment from the owner's point of view). My wider (and a bit tangential/ranty) theory is that the most tacky, tasteless and lacking self-control customers are actually the most profitable, hence businesses generally tend to pander to them. It's just much easier to extract unreasonable amounts of money from someone who's unreasonable (an adult child basically) than from someone sensible and reasonable, so for example us techies are not the target for a lot of companies.

tspike 9y ago
There's no way the returns on investing in making the mall a pleasurable place to hang out in the short term outweigh the costs, but if people depended on malls as part of their area's social fabric, I doubt they would be facing this kind of longer-term decline.
- replicatorblog 9y ago
  This really depends on which mall you go to. The Mall of America is not far off of Disney's Epcot center in terms of the amenities it provides. The Galleria in Houston is almost a city unto itself. I remember seeing a bridal party walking through it once, I'm guessing there was a chapel or function hall inside. A typical mall in Tampa, Florida, or Salem, NH has less charm, but those areas aren't working from a high base to begin with. In dense urban areas, malls tend towards the high end and can be quite nice. The Shops at Copley Place in Boston is fairly high end in terms of shops and the architecture is nice. The Westfield in SF is nice in my recollection.
  - collinmanderson 9y ago
    Yup. Mall of America literally has a zoo (Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium) and an indoor amusement park.
- wahern 9y ago
  People do depend on malls as part of their area's social fabric. That's more true today than when Mall Rats was filmed, even though it's less cool now. It's the social fabric itself, not just the malls, which is disintegrating. Suburbia was never economically sustainable.
  - ethbro 9y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14400448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14400448 This has been discussed here before, and seems to be a bit of a blind spot for HN. Imagine you live in a place where there's only one "mall" nearby: that's most of America (geographically speaking).

photojosh 9y ago

Not an answer to your question exactly, but to the whole premise: Gruen transfer [0]. We have a great TV show by that name here in Australia that deconstructs advertising. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer