The new mall

I went to Costco today to pick up large quantities of ground beef, cheese, lettuce, and tortillas for my community dinner of taco bar tonight. I grabbed a hot dog and drink and as I sat at the table, wolfing it down bc I was starving, I saw two ppl in front of me. One guy's back was to me so it was hard to see what they were doing but there was a large pile of food trash next to them like they had finished quite awhile ago. I realized they were playing cards. Just hanging out. At Costco.

It reminded me of the small mall we had in my suburb growing up. Filipino old men would just hang out there for hours. Often wearing veteran hats or similar, they hung out in front of the frozen yogurt shop and talked. I noticed them the most when my friend Katie got a job in the yogurt shop and we would often stop by to visit her. The old men were always there, just chilling. It was like their open market hang-out area.

Remember those? Just small malls but not strip malls. Laid out in a miniature way of larger indoor malls, just not as big. In there was my dentist where I went for years getting braces, a pet shop where we would always go to see the fish and birds, a Filipino bakery where we would grab pan de sol, the music store where I took piano lessons for two years, the jewelry store my mom would get new watch batteries, a Hallmark where I would save up allowance and buy stationary and Hello Kitty junk, and in the main area there would be a Halloween costume contest or Christmas caroling. It was where our suburb gathered. The biggest store was Sav-On and Mervyn's with our only bowling alley across the parking lot and Von's next door. And all the business weren't chains (except for Hallmark but even that is independently franchised) but Mom and Pop stores individual stores.

Now even my little mall has been transformed. There's a Bed Bath & Beyond and some other large store I can't remember. All the small owners have been run out by increasingly expensive rental rates as my mom and I found out when we take a few minutes to chat with the owners.

I'm fascinated by mall culture/architecture/sociological trends. Where we hang out, how we're pushed to shop and purchase. Now the current trend is a long row, outside, of the same 10 or so big chains. Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Linen & Things, Border's, Old Navy, Ross, Petco, Chevy's, Mimi's (where the heck did this unknown restaurant come from?!), and such. It's like a hidden state law was passed saying only these certain stores would be able to be used in this intentional new mall creation. Do you notice that they're almost always right next to a freeway? Malls didn't used to be built like that. Now you could be driving down any freeway, see a store you need to get something from, and pull over. Easy access. Sounds obvious but it didn't used to be like this. It was more suburb based.

Bigger malls with Sears and JC Penny are becoming obselote. A few years ago I wandered into this site www.deadmalls.com and spent hours looking at pictures and reading about the change in our mall culture. Bc to me, it's not just the mall aspect but it's where are our culture's hang-out areas? For old ppl, young ppl, mothers with children? Parks aren't always safe or accessible; malls can serve dual purposed where you do errands, grab lunch, and then can hang. I often like to wander around malls or Target - being around ppl but by myself, being in a crowd but alone.

(Nora has taken to sitting right next/on me, with her paws on my leg, and head on paws, purring, sleeping. She's doing it right now. Super cute).

So is Costco the new frozen yogurt, suburb mini-mall area? Not too far-fetched.