Observing At The Mall

I went, I saw, I suffered, but I survived....the mall that is. Should I say some novenas as a thankful offering? Anyway, as one who hates shopping malls and avoids them as much as possible, I do recognize that when entered and executed surgically they can be useful. The reason for my mall sojourn today was to buy gift certificates to send for the holidays. I succeeded according to plan with nary an injury, I think. Well, it was traumatic. But then I already am a little psychologically bruised from the vicissitudes of everyday life. I know. You already see that from my frequent odd remarks here.

I do have some observations about today's mall adventure. First, there are a whole lot of kids roaming the mall during school time. I wonder if the truancy people are aware. Those kids are mostly middle school aged, so I suspect they are merely taking an "unregistered" day off from school.  Few were accompanied by adults. Those kids tend to ride or hold on to skate boards (none were carrying books or reading), to have heads down poking their cell phones (the real world to them) and could be seen in hordes everywhere in the mall food court. I suspect the mall is their favorite social meeting place, and that few actually bought any of the goods that were being offered for sale.

The next group I noticed were the little ones, children not yet of school age. The parent to each was usually sitting or pushing a stroller, in the case of the under two year old set. Since many of the kiddies were playing in an area with kid play sets and jungle gyms, I suspect the parents were also not at the mall to shop. In particular, the moms there had expressions of faces that screamed, "Thank God! I am out of the house and my little hellion can scream and run all he wants".  It's sad, but for mom and dad the mall was a sanctuary from the insanity of staying home all day and night with a toddler.

Another large group were the oldies, people of retirement age. Many were walking back and forth through the mall also with no intention of shopping. The mall seems to be a safe and comfortable place for the oldster to exercise in order to delay the inevitable heart attack. But it was puzzling to see the oldies gorging on every sort of unhealthy food sold in the food court. Would this not tend to nullify the effects of the walking? Like the above two groups, the oldies bought little while at the mall. With all those non shoppers, I wondered how the mall sells enough to sustain itself.

But then I found the answer in the final group...the Shoppers. Shoppers come in all shapes, ages and sizes but more often tend to be female and between the ages of 25 and 60. They are the ones with a determined look on the face, a willingness to fight, no, to kill for that last pair of pajamas Uncle Harry will receive as his Christmas gift. The Shopper spends a lot of money (because the spouse is never with the Shopper when he or she spends), so a spendthrift like President Obama would be pleased to see the reckless Shopper tossing about of credit cards as fast as he gives away taxpayer money to special interest groups that vote for him. I suspect that less than half the inhabitants of the prison we call the mall actually bought good or services there. It's somewhat like the American taxpayer. One half the population pays all the taxes so the other half can freeload for benefits.

Malls really do reflect real life. Sigh, that's probably why I so hate them.