Mall of America?

The United States economy isn’t doing so hot. Okay we know this, but there isn’t as much evidence as you would think. In going on this trip, I was expecting to find several traces of a struggling economy, but of all the places to see the effects of that, I was not expecting it to be the Mall of America.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Mall of America is a GIANT mall located in the Twin cities area. It has four floors, over twenty thousand parking spaces, and over five hundred stores inside of it. Supposedly it’s one of the most visited places in the United States. But what do you when the visitors don’t buy anything?

As I walked around the block of retail, I couldn’t help but notice that so many retail shops were having huge sales, sometimes even up to seventy percent off: Macy’s, Express, Gap, H&M, Lacoste, and Guess. At first, I couldn’t help but think how I might be able to profit from this situation so I began to look around with more interest as I passed these stores, and that’s when I noticed that I wasn’t passing much else. There weren’t that many people there in the mall. Granted it was a Thursday afternoon, but I wasn’t in any regular mall. I was in the Mall of America; but apparently close to being by myself.

I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just imagining things and that the Mall’s patronage was in fact sparse, so I decided to ask someone who knew. I walked inside the Gap and ran upon Donald, who was more than available to talk, since there were no other customers in the store.

He confirmed my thoughts for me about the Mall. It had been slow for a while. “Usually, the weekends are better,” he explained, “but, even then there aren’t as many people.” Donald assured me that it was probably because of the economy, like I suspected. He went on to explain that most of the Mall’s best customers haven’t even been Americans. Lately European and Asian tourists have been making the most purchases. And that’s actually understandable, given the fact that it is such a well known Mall. For the sake of the economy I was grateful for the tourists who were coming and beating me to sales at Express and H&M because it was helping us.

But then I began to think about all of the other local malls that aren’t as famous around the world. How many tourists were coming to Southlake, River Gate, Tower Center, or Mayfair Mall to buy items? It seems like for every one tourist who makes a purchase at the Mall of America there are three more American citizens who aren’t making purchases in ordinary malls across the country. That’s not a very good ratio. Something had to be done. All of a sudden I felt compelled to do something, in the Mall of America. I felt compelled to shop; not for my own profit but for the benefit of the country and the country’s economy.

So I looked around for the lucky store in which I would buy from: Gap, Express, Foot Locker, Lids, Ecko Unltd, Old Navy, Best Buy, Foot Action, Banana Republic…nothing. I wasn’t really finding anything that stuck out for me. There were so many options to choose from that I couldn’t choose one. It was like I was at a six street intersection, and I had no clue of what I was going to do. I was on sensory overload, and I couldn’t take it. Never before had I felt so conflicted inside such an institution of business. So I stood in the middle of the mall for about ten minutes trying to come to a decision.

That was when I found a compromise between what I wanted and what my country needed. With all of the resolve possible I took several steps west, without really thinking about where I was headed. Small steps for me, and probably even smaller steps for the economy, but they were still steps. I don’t remember what happened next. It all happened so fast, that it’s hard to recall. The next thing I knew I was standing outside of the Mall of America, sipping on the biggest smoothie that the Food Court had to offer, with no other bags in hand.

The fact is, I could have spent a lot more money in another store, but that would have been a little irresponsible. I mean after all, the economy isn’t in the best shape right now...That smoothie was what was best for me and my country, so I couldn’t help but feel like a hero as I sucked it down in the cool shade, watching foreign tourists exit the Mall beside me with their hands full of bags. Again I was grateful for them and their purchases, but I also knew that my country was grateful for me. Had patriotism ever tasted so sweet? I’m not sure at all really.