Of MoA and MVM

"On Sunday we went to the mall." So begins the diary entries of thousands of teenage girls. My first trip to the Mall of America, and to any American mall in general. Even without expectations of buying anything (I ended up getting a H&M hoodie nonetheless), I was super excited to immerse myself in the American browsing/shopping culture. Given that it's the biggest mall in America by numerous measures, I'd had some high expectations.

Unfortunately I was disappointed. The activity in the Mall of America was just about equivalent to my experiences back in Malaysia; perhaps even less because of its high status compared to the malls I visited with such frequency (sometimes two, three times a week?) at home. Maybe this was due to it being a relatively warm Sunday afternoon in fall (I hear they didn't use to exist?), so perhaps families had decided to spend their time in the actual outdoors.

In many ways the people I encountered were similar to the ones I saw in Malaysia. Tired parents chasing after children in the theme park. Groups of teenagers and young adults just hanging out, usually around food or drinks. Smaller proprietor stalls set up in the middle of the wider walkways. Chinese tourists snapping pictures of every little detail. Strollers were being pushed around everywhere. Most people only carried one or two smaller bags.

Maybe because of the nature of the Mall of America, there were quite a few differences. I hardly saw any people walking alone. Only a select few were wearing business formal, and they looked incredibly out of place. Groups identifiable as families tended to have only one or two adults, rarely more. Most curiously, not many people appeared to browsing the stores; if someone entered a store, they would generally move immediately towards a specific area and pick up an item; people didn't often seem to walk out of stores empty-handed.

In comparison to the Mall of America, I raise the Mid Valley Megamall, one of the malls I frequented most in Malaysia. The two are comparable in terms of size - MoA has 4.87 million square feet of space, while MVM has 4.5 million. Mid Valley is also easily accessible by rail. However, the Mall of America has major attractions in the Sea Life Aquarium (that's the name ">.<) and Nickelodeon Universe; Mid Valley has neither of these, nor is it advertised as the largest mall in Malaysia, as that accolade would go to several others first. These would seem to provide a greater diversity of shoppers in the Mall of America, yet the demographics do tend to similarity. Regardless, there are some sizeable differences.

Malaysian society is generally quite communal. As such, families are about the same size as American ones, but they go out alone less often; it is quite often the norm to invite extended family (aunts and uncles, grandparents, not-so-distant cousins) when going on trips to the mall. This means multiple sets of parents and children are often found together, in bigger groups than I witnessed at the Mall of America. Malaysian malls are also often integrated with corporate buildings; Mid Valley is no exception, being adjacent to a number of business hotels and the fancier Gardens mall. Business people are a common sight in Mid Valley, whether in the restaurants or just business-walking their way through the mall between the corporate offices littered throughout. A third point - Malaysians, and Malaysian Chinese in general, have a tendency to be incredibly calculative. It's incredibly common (maybe even to the point of negativity) to see shoppers going between multiple outlets and comparing prices, searching for the best deals. This kind of mentality pervades Malaysian shopping society regardless of race or age.

One thing to note is that Malaysia is HOT out. Malls provide a refuge from the heat all year round, and especially in the city there are few to no alternatives for outside space. This brings people desperate to escape the stifling heat from their homes in hordes on the weekends. Mid Valley is also unique in that the basement floor is almost entirely dedicated to food outlets, primarily fast food and middle-class-family-oriented restaurants. Because of the sheer number of cultures intermingling over generations, Malaysian foodies have an immensely extended palate, and malls must also be similarly accomodating. I've had numerous trips there with my family for the sole purpose of food, simply because the options are so diverse and accessible. Furthermore, the cinema in Mid Valley is one of the most established in the area, and the ticket queue can easily snake for up to half an hour on weekends.

The general shopping culture in Malaysia might also play a role. Because much of the Malaysian economy relies on tourism, the malls must be able to attract not only locals but also foreigners from various countries.This is to a great degree accomplished by providing varied shopping experiences that draw the attention of people from numerous cultures, nationalities and ethnicities, each of which have their own expectations and desires. Maybe a great diversity of customers and experiences is to be expected from malls in such places. Mid Valley is certainly not very different from the Mall of America in that regard.

Ethnography of Cub Foods

I did not have any extra time to get out to go to a shopping mall so i am going to discuss my ethnography on Cub Foods over in St. Paul.  Upon first arriving and parking in the parking lot you can see how full the store is almost right away.  The second you walked into the store it was almost like a huge burst of colors, different fonts, different signs advertising this deal or that and at first it is all very overwhelming  because you aren't sure where to start.  After I started walking I instantly notice how my cart is squeaking and how it veer's to the left without me shoving it back straight due to the bum wheel on the front left.  As I started walking down the aisles I noticed the different  all the different people;  Older men trying to decide what eggs they want like it is Who Wants to be a Millionaire, kids running up and down the aisles as if it were a playground, and the stockers stocking all the different foods into the coolers and shelves.  Regardless of all the distractions I keep moving from aisle to aisle picking up some ingredients here and there until I come upon one of the store's favorite selling techniques, the vibrant "its a sale!" sign.  Covered in all different colors to make it POP out to everyone, I begin to notice the sheer amount of sale signs in each aisle as I progress.  As I start to come to the end my ears become flooded with this extremely high pitched noise coming from all the registers, I pick a line and wait in turn for my items to be checked out.  While waiting I seem to notice every little detail about this register and the cashier such as; gum is on sale, his side of the register is extremely cluttered with coupons and old receipts, and also how each time he moves the belt he swipes his fingers over the sensor.  Needless to say my trip to Cub Foods was more than exhiliarating and still worked out well for this assignment.

Ethnogrophy

First of all I should say that I did not have a chance to go to a mall since our last class, so instead I will be writing about an experience that I had over the summer.

The experience I had was on a Saturday. I worked in the morning, but was home alone in the afternoon in my aunt's house that I had not stayed in for very long. I decided to go to the Maplewood mall with two goals in mind: buy a belt and kill some time. When I walked in I immediately noticed that the primary target of this mall was not for people like me. Many of the stores that I found there were targeted at teens or preteens. The mall was filled with stores like Aeropostle, American Eagle, Journeys and Hot Topic, stores that are of no interest to me.

The other thing I noticed about this mall was that it had plenty of places for children to have fun. There was a big carousel on the bottom floor, a special play area, a train that ran throughout the mall that kids could ride, and an arcade. I think this a smart strategy adapted by many malls. It lets parents know that they don't have to worry about bringing their kids with them because there are activities to keep them busy.

Northing in this mall was targeted at the early 20s male crowd that I belong to. I spent five minutes walking around, ten minutes looking in Barnes and Noble then left. Also my mom told me that there was an employee discount day coming up at the store she worked in and that she would buy me a belt on that day for a cheaper price. I completed 0 of 2 goals.

Ethnography of Skyway

The skyway system in downtown Minneapolis is an intricate and interesting maze that connects many buildings together so people can cross the area away from the normal humdrum that can be seen on the streets along with creating its own culture.

It is completely unorthodox. The system is not a mall per say but includes all the stereotypes of what we see a mall needs: many smaller stores, restaurants, and large department stores like Target and Macys. Although, every now and then you will walk into a building that is "off limits." You enter the business friendly museum and baking system in the Wells Fargo tower. You suddenly feel as if you don't belong walking by offices and exhibits.

Then you walk across the street in one of the fourth floor sky tunnels and you are back to normal buzz. There's this odd mix of people who are treating the skyways as a shopping area and slowly roam around and people who use it as just a walkway and quickly go to where they need to be.

Its this environment where its not a mall but is. On one had the skyway connects large malls and stores in different buildings together without making people use the street, but it also more. There are stores that are only accessible through the skyways. Stores that rely on people who actively go there to shop and not just trying to get form the convention center to the Target Center without having to deal with traffic.

Ethnography of shopping mall

I took a visit to mall of america to do this ethonography. I usually don't go to mall of america unless I'm under a situation that in badly need of adding clothes to my closet, or go there seeing a newest movie, for the reason that it takes so long of traffic to get there since I don't have a car, always feeling tired, boring and waste of time going there.

But in the recent week,it's the third time I went there. I got something really serious happened to my laptop, and I have to go to apple store in MOA to ask their engineer to fix it for me. All three times I went there alone. Most of the times I go to the mall on weekend with friends, but this time it was myself and I have to go there from school while I still have class after. So on the light rail to mall suddenly looks much longer than usual. And when I finally reached there I was definitely exhausted especially mentally. For the first visit to mall on weekday, one thing I noticed first it's noisy as usually there are still large crowds of people hanging around there, aren't they supposed to be at work?It is 1:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday!

Anyway I don't have time to think about this deeply, so I went directly to apple store. Then I found my self cannot tell the direction! That's crazy and ridiculous because every time I went there I was literally a total blank in my head and follow my friends unconsciously. This time I have to find out myself like I'm there for the first time. Wandering for half a circle on the first floor, I noticed that there are almost no customers going inside to the store, except for the amusement park and the lego store, while apple and microsoft store is full of people with kids and their families as always.

So I guess the noise I heard when I entered mall was mostly from kids and that kind of justify one of the opinions last class, that mall is not that great for shopping but a perfect place for kids to go to.

Different Types of Malls

For my mall observation I analyzed the atmosphere from both the perspective of a worker and a consumer. Also, the difference between retail stores that are in a mall and outside of a mall. I have worked at both and been a consumer at both.

The atmosphere of a mall for me has not always been the same. When I was young the mall was a place my friends and I would hang out and walk around. When I went to the Mall of America I noticed younger kids doing just this. It seemed silly to me now but I understand the logic because I once did the same thing. Now that I am older, the mall is a place for the sole purpose of shopping. Even though MOA offers movies, restaurants, and a theme park I only go for shopping. I save all of the other attraction to outside sources. As a retail worker in the mall I got a different perspective. I got really annoyed at kids walking around my store and not buying anything. They were just an annoyance and did not offer anything to me. I would much rather prefer actual buyers and people that are in a store for a purpose.

This brings up the difference between mall retail stores and outside retail stores. In a retail outside of the mall people come in with the intent to buy things. People do not just stop into "target stores" to look around for the most part. The mall offers the convenience of simply meandering into random stores just to take a peak. Most people do not drive out of there way to a stand alone store to simply look around. As a worker I like the outside stores much more for this purpose and serious consumers like outside stores more because they want to buy.

In my ethnography I will be looking at the mall from both the standpoint of a consumer and as a worker. I work at Herberger’s at the Blaine Northtown. This is a smaller mall that is going downhill rather quickly.

Coming into a day of work we start off with a take 5 meeting. This meeting entails reminding us to smile, greet every customer, the amount we are expected to sell, and how many credit applications we are expected to open. It seems that the only purpose of our mangers is to walk around and give the associates candy bars for each credit application that they open. Which is actually a rather frustrating situation as the mangers seem so insensitive to who we are and only care about our performance. There are also typically people at the door handing out coupons trying to get the costumers to stop and shop at Herberger’s before entering into the mall.

                  However, entering the mall for the purpose of a consumer the experience is completely different. For me after having the experience of also working in the mall it is frustrating to see the insincere greetings. I can tell how annoyed the workers are even with the fake smiles on their faces, as very few people truly enjoy standing for 8 hours waiting on peoples every needs. I personally do enjoy going to the mall, however after staying at the mall for more than an hour I tend to get very frustrated and just want to leave.

                  Overall, I think that malls are designed and set up specifically with the idea to sell more goods. Without even realizing it, the placement of every item and even every worker is designed to sell you goods easier.