Francis Rutz Rutz 1
Dr. Oguine
ENWR-105
Essay 4
28 October 2003
Australian and American Shopping Malls:
For Pleasure or For Purchasing?
Shopping malls are a prevalent part of both Australian and American societies. People of all races, creeds, ages, and social status flock to malls to participate in what John Fiske labels as the “conflict of consumerism” (284). However, he calls it the “conflict of consumerism” because recently there have been problems with disruptive teenagers interfering with potential buyers and posing a safety threat both to other shoppers and each other. It is shocking how many people come to malls in both countries with no intention, or means, to buy. According to Fiske in his essay, “Shopping For Pleasure; Malls, Power, and Resistance,” a study shows that “80 percent of unemployed young people visited the mall at least once a week, and nearly a 100 percent of young unemployed women were regular visitors” (285). As a result, some malls have even imposed restrictions to limit this. In Robyn Meredith’s essay, “Big Malls Curfew Raises Questions of Rights and Bias,” she explores issues concerning a recent restriction imposed on younger teenagers at the Mall of America in Minnesota, which is a public debate. However, it is a real problem that mall owners have to cope with. In fact, malls here in America are very similar to those in Australia, because in both countries, the malls are turning into a type of indoor parks where citizens participate in a variety of their own personal activities regardless of the intent of the mall owners.
Rutz 2
According to Fiske, malls are no longer solely for shopping anymore. Fiske says that the malls in Australia are now being used for a variety of other activities including underage drinking, sale of drugs, making general mischief, and “proletarian shopping,” or “window shopping with no intention to buy” (285). He believes that the very setup and nature of shopping malls are conducive to this type of behavior:
Shopping malls are open invitations to trickery and tenacity. The youths who turn them into their meeting places, or who trick the security guards by putting alcohol into some, but only some, soda cans, are not actually behaving any differently from lunch hour shoppers who browse through the stores, trying on goods, consuming and playing with images, with no intention to buy. (286)
His observations of malls in Australia show that malls are no longer being used only for shopping, but for a variety of other activities.
Similarly, this holds true in the United States as well. Robyn Meredith, in her news report, reveals a number of striking similarities between the Mall of America and the Australian malls. According to her essay, “Teenagers swarm the shopping mall, disturbing other shoppers with chases, practical jokes and fistfights” (289). She also says, “Young people and adults agree that teenagers can be obnoxious. They race down the halls in groups, scattering shoppers in their paths. They use foul language when shouting at their friends some even drop food or spit over the railings, aiming at the shoppers below” (290). Once when I was shopping with some of my friends, I saw someone dropping food on others from an upper level. For example, they would look over the edge, drop a French-fry, and then duck down behind the railing to avoid detection. Activities such as this are common in both American and Australian malls. Meredith tells a
Rutz 3
similar story relating how someone poured a shake on a store manager’s head from the floor above (290). In addition, two more problems they share, and ones I have participated in, are people running through the halls and “proletarian shopping” (Fiske 285). I have never been to a mall in Australia, but the activities Fiske describes certainly happen in America too.
However, the youth are not the only ones using the controlled climate of the malls for their own pleasure. Adults do this as well. Unlike Meredith, Fiske also discusses this aspect. “In the extreme weather people exploit the controlled climate of the malls for their own pleasure—mothers take children to play in their air-conditioned comfort in hot summers, and in winter older people use their concourses for daily walks” (286). Similarly, this occurs in America as well as Australia. One friend of my mother’s used to come early to malls, before the shops were open, to get her exercise for the day. In addition, I often see mothers bringing their children to malls, and sometimes leaving them unattended. Meredith observed “children as young as 12 caring for 2-year-old siblings” (290). Fiske introduces pleasure as the reason for this behavior. The environment he describes also sounds very close to that of a park, where mothers also bring their children to play and adults go for exercise. It is clear that older persons here in America and in Australia act similarly in the malls too, not just teenagers and younger people.
From these essays and my personal experience, it is clear that malls are now being used for purposes other than shopping. They are becoming like indoor parks used for activities not intended by malls’ owners themselves. Adults as well as children are participating in these activities, and they are happening in Australia and the United States in a very similar fashion. In fact, malls here in America are very similar to those in Australia, because in both countries, the malls are turning into a type of indoor parks where citizens participate in a variety of their own personal activities, for their own personal pleasure, regardless of the intent of the mall owners.
Rutz 4
Works Cited
Fiske, John. “Shopping For Pleasure; Malls, Power, and Resistance.” Reading Culture. 4th ed. Ed. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2001. 283-286.
Meredith, Robyn. “Big Malls Curfew Raises Questions of Rights and Bias” Reading Culture. 4th
ed. Ed. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2001. 288-291.