Malls Represent Culture

Today I made a quick trip to the Holyoke mall for a long-hesitated lap top purchase. I arrived there at 5 p.m. and was already holding my new Acer at 5:17 p.m. The rest of my time in the mall I spent observing consumer practices and comparing them to those in Bulgaria.

In the US the purpose of malls is to provide a rich product selection in a consumer-friendly and practical way that adequately responds to the clients' needs. In Bulgaria, however, the role of malls is different. People visit them not so much to buy stuff but rather to immerse themselves in a social environment. That is why the structure of the malls in America and Bulgaria also varies to fit its customers' characters.

In the Holyoke mall, for instance, the food court is located on the first floor where you go once you get hungry from all the shopping you have done. Dressed in sweatpants and baseball hats, people examine the information signs to find out the exact location of the store they need.

Though smaller in Varna, malls are full of cafes, restaurants and entertainment centers on every floor. Priority here is not the actual shopping experience but the activities before and after it. People like to show off their new clothes and shiny shoes, and could spend a whole day in the mall watching movies, having coffee and playing pool or bowling.

I find these shopping practices representative of two distant cultures and descriptive of the different character of their targeted audiences.