walmart vs the mall

wal-mart vs the mall Where did it all begin ? Walmart vs the mall . Let's turn on the 'way back' machine . It is 1976 and cable TV has just gone nation wide. Now courtesy of Ted Turner, we can watch 24-hour TV , 24/7 news and sports and reruns of Bewitched at 4:00 am in the morning. America - what a country !

Of course with this orgy of TV came 24/7 commercials and with all that advertising came the huge expansion of retail space. Hence the mall, which began the era of "build it and they will come ". Suburban sprawl exploded. More TVs , more commercials , more malls and more suburban housing tracts. This was America by 1980 and the growth never stopped . Now the housing and land development has replaced the lost manufacturing as Americas number one industry. Build it and pray that they buy.I

am sure we all know there are no clean deals . There has been one problem with all this wonderful expansion. In 2007 there is 20.5 square feet of retail space for every American as compared to 2.5 for Europeans. The jargon of retailers is precise. The mall is impulse shopping. Walmart is destination shopping. The problem with the malls (with the exception of Sears) is the malls do not sell useful items. The malls sell clothes , purses , shoes and oh yes atmosphere . We should all be impressed by the amount of money that is spent in an effort to create an atmosphere that encourages impulse shopping. Another surprising fact is that advertisers and developers use marketing firms that use psychologists to help them create advertisements and environments that pull all of our emotional triggers. We have been brain washed into shopping. Clean minds and cleaned out pockets.

The whole advertising culture has morphed into creating messages that make you feel good about a product or service whether you need it or not. Ever notice all the advertisements seldom show anyone using the product or service. Just people talking about how good the product or service makes them feel, while sitting in settings that are decorated in early rich with plenty of diffused sunlight creating a glow. Ahh, I feel better already.

This is where Walmart comes in among all this bliss and gratitude for the American way of life. Americans began to feel the pinch of higher gasoline prices and utilities . Hello Walmart! So many useful items and so cheap. It has become America's dirty little secret. Buy your clothes at the mall and everything else at Walmart.

Unfortunately, again there are no clean deals in the land of plenty. To do this Wal-mart has to run a warehouse on wheels and those little fellers in China have to eat our inflation by working for 50 cents an hour . It's OK the Mexicans ate our inflation for less. So what happens when diesel fuel is $7.00 a gallon and the Chinese are making $1.00 an hour? What happens when the emotional triggers of heat and eat are being pulled daily? The fantasy land of mall shopping may become history and memories. What will happen to the malls when the price of designer clothes triples and the Bon-Ton says bye-bye?

I think the malls will then be turned into useful places. They really have such a marvelous atmosphere .