Silver Back Muzik

You have to ask yourself if the traditional shopping mall is becoming a dinosaur as more and more people tend to their shopping online. Sure, there are the hardcore fans that will defend the mall as more than just a place where you go to buy brand labelled shoes for half-price compared to the exclusive boutique down the corner.

A Meeting Point

The mall has taken on overtures, almost becoming a symbol of the American way with life, liberty and justice for all. In how many high-school movies doesn't the mall play more than just a supporting role, as the natural meeting point for exchanging the latest gossip on everything from boys to fashion. It's been a natural coming-of-age symbol ever since they first opened their gates.

But, with the ever-increasing options of buying your shoes online or even browsing the web to find the paradox of an online outlet mall, the need for the physical building in itself seems to be threatened.

Clothing Online

With sayings like "time is money" becoming increasingly true the more time-saving technical gadgets we come up with, there is no wonder why more and more people rather turn on the computer and put their order in after just a few quick clicks. However hard they try, putting up stores in nearly every corner, they can not set up shop right there in your kitchen. And with an increasing efficiency in order-management and speedy deliveries the need to stuff everyone into the back of the family van for a trip to the local mall, seems- no matter if it's no more than ten minutes away-redundant, as an ON-switch to a computer is never a greater distance than an arm away.

There you will have everything, and the abundance of stores know no boundaries, there are no physical confinements to find what you are searching for.

A New Dawn

But maybe I'm overdoing it. Maybe the mall simply is going to be forced to go through a transition period much like the music and movie industry, maybe they just have to keep building on that all-American status and market themselves even harder as a place for socialization, and not a place to do your shopping.

Because fact is, despite the nightmare scenarios painted by worried parents seeing their kids dwell day in and night out in front of their computers, internet is rather instigating interacting than stifling it, and it doesn't show any signs of threatening or replacing the much-needed face-to-time of human interaction; but it could mean we have to rearrange and re-structure the functions of the physical meeting points, which we have been taken for granted for a long time.

The online malls can offer such an extensive array of different options that to compete with it shop for shop would be a both unnecessary and un-winnable task. Shopping online will give you instant access to the scooter shop simultaneously with the fashion design collection. You just scroll between two windows and there you have it. You can shop for bathroom accessories and exotic dancewear all under the same roof; namely your own.

So, the physical shopping mall may be forced to undergo some changes, but its online counterpart is more than ready to fill in its shoes.