Black Friday Warfare

First off, this story wasn’t very interesting (I never thought someone could actually make shopping boring). This article might be more interesting to someone that owns a business in a mall or to someone interested in economics. I agree with John Friske’s opposition to the metaphor between shopping and religion and his reasoning that the consumer has more power than the slaves to consumerism that they are often portrayed as being. However, I don’t agree with the idea that shopping is “warfare” though (even if Black Friday can get a little violent); both the consumer and the businesses have power, but the power is often used in a beneficial way for both parties. Power can be shared and doesn’t always necessitate a struggle or war. As for the “tricksters,” food businesses should be welcoming those “youths” to the mall, because eventually those teenagers are going to get hungry or thirsty and buy something to eat or drink. Teenagers and pre-teens are only hanging out at malls, because communities often don’t have another place for them to hang out at. Instead of just complaining about teenagers hanging out in the mall, people should be wondering why they are hanging out in a mall. Is this a habit, because there is no where else in the community for teens to go, or because those teenagers happen to find a comforting environment in the mall? If it’s the environment that draws the teenagers creating a similar environment elsewhere could stop this “problem” and creating a recreation center could help if teenagers are in the mall because there is nothing else to do with spare time in that community. As the article states, the way that malls use space is changing. The mall is becoming more considerate of it’s customers with comfy chairs as opposed to only hard wooden benches and adding little park areas for people with small children instead of parents having to drag children around the mall. This change is definitely for the better; the mall is becoming more than just a place to buy things, it is now a meeting place, a place for diner, a place to talk to friends, and a place to people watch. This progression goes along with how our culture has changed since the birth of the mall. Although many people go to the mall to buy the things they need, they can also eat there and sit down and relax for a few moments between all the rushing around. Like in Murphy Davis’s article, the mall should be geared toward the buyer which would also cause higher profit margins for the businesses.