OUR SHOPPING CENTRE SHOULD HAVE A SOUL
Written by Tan Hai Hsin, Retail Group Malaysia
for 1Mage Magazine December 2009 issue
MALL CULTURE AND ITS SOCIETY
‘Teenagers are not paying attention to their education, they rather hang out in shopping malls.’
‘Shopping malls only encourage you to spend, spend and spend. It pushes up your credit card
debts.’
‘Shopping malls do not contribute to the wellbeing of your life. You should be going to library,
play outdoor sports, go camping, attend cultural show, participate in charity events, etc., instead
of spending hours and hours in shopping malls.’
‘Men hate shopping malls, it is the women who drag them there. Men get bored while waiting for
their women to shop.’
These are popular arguments against modern shopping malls.
What drive the rapid development of shopping malls in Malaysia and other part of Asia?
This is due to the rapid urbanization of Asian population and the increasing western influence
through easy access to foreign media and overseas latest trends. Shopping mall fits the modern
lifestyles of Asian consumers.
§
§
§
With the increasing purchasing power of Asian consumers, shopping malls offer a one-stop
and complete range of material products and services to satisfy their needs and wants
Shopping mall offers a climate controlled and traffic-free premises with many public
facilities that allow consumers to spend long hours on their weekends
Today’s shopping malls offer exciting, colourful and comfortable shopping environment as
compared to modern houses of Asians
In fact, shopping malls are now the most favourite and most popular weekend activities of Asian
shoppers. Regardless of the current world economic crisis, political riots, natural disasters and
deadly diseases, Asian shoppers continue to flock shopping centres everywhere and anywhere.
Furthermore, shopping malls are favourite places for window shopping. You do not need to have
money to go shopping malls.
Malls R Us is a 2009 documentary produced by Helene Klodawsky. It is an interesting film that
presents the positive and negative influences of shopping malls on today’s consumers.
There is a website called Deadmalls.com that features shopping malls that have failed or are in
the process of failing. Set up by Peter Blackbird and Brian Florence in 2000, it has a listing of
300 failed or failing shopping malls.
NEW TRENDS IN MALL CULTURE
(1) Human-Scale Shopping Mall
‘I’m tired, I don’t think I can go on any longer. This shopping mall is too big to walk!’
‘Most shopping malls I go to look the same. I find almost the same retailers!’
‘Without looking at the retailers, most contemporary shopping malls in Asia look the same as
shopping malls in United States and Australia.’
‘Many suburuban shopping malls are like a rectangular box’
‘This shopping mall is so gigantic and cold, I don’t feel comfortable shopping here.’
These are common remarks made on our many shopping centres today.
In recent years, numerous daring developers and architects are introducing interesting
architectural elements that attempt to make shopping a fun activity.
Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai has thematic shopping streets resembling market places in 14th
century Andalusia, Tunisia, Egypt, Persia, India and China. Trinoma in Manila has a
multi-tier park at the centre of the shopping centre with water features running from the
roof top to the ground level. City Plaza in Shanghai has curvy internal layout. 50% of the
retail space in The Curve, Kuala Lumpur is located in an outdoor environment.
The new trend now is creating human-scale shopping mall.
(2) Eco-Friendly Shopping Mall
Eco-friendly shopping mall is still considered new in the world. So far, the trends have been
having large green area within a shopping centre, waterless urinals, recycling tri-colour rubbish
bins, solor-powered lighting at open-space car park, etc.
City Square Mall in Singapore and Green Exchange in Chicago are two examples of new
shopping centres that introduce many green technologies and measures in their buildings.
More and more green measures are needed to introduce in new and existing shopping centres:
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
Rain water harvesting
Energy generation through solar panels
Eco-friendly building materials
Designs that encourage more natural ventilation
Designs which reduce air-conditioning consumption
Sustainable mall furniture
Use of public transport and car sharing system to reduce car dependency to shopping mall
Tenants involve in social responsible business conducts
More tenants selling organic products
Shoppers involved in green activities
Today’s shopping malls should get their management team, their tenants and most importantly,
their shoppers to involve in making our only Earth more sustainable.
MALL CULTURE OF THE FUTURE
New shopping centre developments in Asia are getting larger and larger in size. It is getting tiring
to walk mega shopping mall. It is taking longer for you to walk to your regular shops. It is
troublesome to find your car in the sea of 5,000 or more car parking lots. It is easy to get lost in
big shopping mall.
Shopping malls of the future need to be more user-friendly. It should be easier for shoppers to
move from one end of the shopping mall to the other, and from the highest floor to the lowest
floor. Shopping malls of the future must be easier to walk. Shoppers will find it easy to move
from one shop to another. Shoppers will not be forced to walk in specific routes pre-designed by
the building owner and the designer.
Shopping malls of the future need to be more user-friendly. Shoppers do not need to spend 30
minutes to find empty parking lots. Shoppers also do not need to spend 30 minutes to find their
cars and leave the shopping malls.
Shopping malls of the future will no longer be a central place for mass consumption only.
Developers and designers of shopping malls need to start giving emphasis on the social aspect of
consumers.
Shopping malls of the future should not become a fully commercialized product. If you are a
regular shopper to a particular shopping mall, the mall management team should know you and
always interact with you in order to improve your shopping convenience and to meet your needs
in their shopping mall. Shopping mall of future should be your friendly little place. You are not
intimidated by them. In this place, you will find your friendly shopkeepers, your helpful security
guards, your regular spots in coffee shops, your favourite parking space, etc.
Shopping malls of the future shall equip with the latest technology to provide information on the
products and services available in the shopping malls. Shoppers need not walk into the specific
shops in order to obtain the information they need. Technology available in the shopping malls
allows them to access to this information via mobile phones, mobile computers and information
kiosks located in every corner of the malls.
Shopping malls of the future should provide sufficient public space for social enrichment,
academic learning and a gathering place for friends and families. And, many of these public
facilities should be free-of-charge.
Shopping malls of the future will become a truly communal place for human beings. It will
provide a central place for human beings to express themselves, their passions, their idealism,
their wants and of course, their needs.
Shopping malls of the future will be able to have a close tie with the community it serves. It
should thrive and suffer with the community it is located. It is always able to respond to the needs
of the community. Most importantly, these needs should not be limited to material goods.
Shopping malls of the future should be able to provide a platform for innovation.
Shopping malls of the future shall offer opportunities for local entrepreneurs to develop and grow
their businesses.
Last but not least, shopping malls of the future should co-exist with the retail businesses located
in high streets and markets. Both of them supply different goods and services to the same group
of consumers.