this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
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Showerthoughts
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I know it's hard to imagine since you've pretty much got to pay to exist anywhere today, but malls were a place to just exist. I spent hours and hours wandering around the mall in the eighties without any money.
Expanding on the thought, it was perfectly ok to be, get this, a TEENAGER existing without any money in a mall!
In my country malls were never this. When I was young several malls, specially high end ones, banned unaccompanied teenagers during weekdays and at certain hours. Also, fuck malls with absolutely no seating or resting spaces outside of the food court. I hope they all go broke and get demolished.
Might also depend on the timing. At least in the 90s, my area was as described, a hangout place where ambient hanging out was considered just fine because enough people bought stuff it was worth it and people behaved relatively well, or they had enough security to make that the case.
Now there's all sorts of signs up about unaccompanied teenagers are not allowed.
Sounds like EU got work to do
I have no respect for people with no shopping agenda
Not really. Malls existed because enough of the people who went there were spending enough money to make them profitable.
Yes it was permissible to go to a mall and not spend any money, and a lot of people did just that, but that doesn't mean malls did not require most people to be spending money.
I think not "most" but the ones that did spend spent plenty enough to make up for the rest. Maybe "most" do at least grab food at a restauraunt though.