A lot of things have changed since I started traveling for business some thirty years ago. Perhaps the most obvious is that you used to get dressed up to travel and now you dress down. What may not be so obvious is that increasingly, no matter where you travel, you seem to go to the same place and that place looks like a mall.
It was different when I started traveling. The shops and accents were different wherever I went. I could find unique, local gifts for my kids. But that changed.
Soon, it seemed like everyone was selling the same stuff from stores that looked the same. That's what got my daughter Diana to begin collecting refrigerator magnets, which at least had the virtue of having slightly different appearance, one from the other. She developed quite a collection over the years with the usual state-shaped magnets, but also unique ones like the one from the Million Barrel Oil Tank.
Unique things add texture and interest to life. In Albany, California there's a hamburger place called "Big Al's Burgers." Both the burgers and Al were big. The shakes were great. All you had to do was eat there once to know that it was smart to get just a half-order of fries, unless you'd brought a stomach extender along.
There was only one Big Al's on the planet. There still is, even though Al's retired now and a Vietnamese family runs the place. You don't find places like Big Al's in the malls.
There are lots of wonderful places to shop and eat out in the world, places that are unique, like Big Al's is unique. They are places like Bristol Books or the Dock Street Oyster Bar here in Wilmington, but you can find them everywhere, except in the mall.
Malls are different from the world. By design they face inward and away from the world. It's been that way since Highland Park Shopping Village in Dallas established the design in 1931. But in the outside world stores face outward and streets bring you in close.
By design, at the mall, you'll find tons of fashion and impulse purchase possibilities, but no staples. Just try finding a bar of Dial soap on your next trip to the mall. Malls are designed so it's difficult to just run in for something you need and run out again. So you won't find those little things at the mall.
What you will find is the same stores. There will be a Radio Shack and a GNC, and a couple of versions of mall jewelers, with interchangeable staff. Half the shops will sell trendy clothing that seems designed to fit folks about the size of my leg. A third will sell some kind of collectable. There will be at least one bookstore. Kiosks selling wireless phones, more collectables and food will fill the walkways.
There seem to be three generic store styles. One is pale wood and brushed aluminum and rounded edges. The other is stark black and white with sharp edges. A third is stuffed with bright colored things. Nothing is unique.
As Laurence Siegel says, "If you dropped a person into most malls, they would not know what part of the country they were in." He should know. Siegel is chairman of Mills Corporation, one of the largest mall developers there is.
They're not only the same, they're everywhere. Back in the 1960s there were about 3000 shopping centers. Today there are nearly 40,000. They aren't just on the rims of urban areas, either. They're in the suburbs and cities and along the Interstate.
When I started traveling, most airports looked like minimum security prisons. Today, just about every airport in the country is trying to turn itself into a mall. Just visit Washington's Reagan airport, or Pittsburgh or Detroit Metro, and you'll understand why retail spending accounts for 17 percent of global airport revenue.
What's wrong with all this? Not everything. I like the predictability some. Shoot, take me to any city in the country and put me in a mall, and I can feel at home, sort of.
I know that every Gap store will look the same and have the same fixtures and that the shelves will be stuffed with goods alternating blue with bright colors.
There's comfort in what I won't find. In some ways the mall will be a refuge, summed up this way by historian Kenneth Jackson. The mall will have "no unsavory bars, or pornography shops, no threatening looking characters, no litter, no rain, no excessive heat or cold."
It's comfortable, and predictable. It's all the same, and it's boring.
I'll tell you this. When I'm on the road, I try to find the local and interesting places, even though that takes a little work. When I'm new in town, I'll ask friends or folks at the hotel to recommend a restaurant that's only in that town. I'll ask servers what I can eat or drink that I won't find anywhere else.
And, when I come back to Wilmington, I'll head down to the Dock Street Oyster Bar or out to Bristol Books. I won't go out to the malls. I've already seen them. Everywhere.
This feature appeared on 16 July 2001
