Shopping as an Entertainment Experience
71
needs for many members of the urban middle and upper-middle-class. Just as
today, the museum/gallery gift store is the inversion of this equation; the
department store offered those who entered through its doors the chance to
experience a variety of entertainment offerings.
Marvin Traub, the former chairman of Bloomindales, consciously set out
to make Bloomingdales an entertainment mecca. Buyers, merchandisers, and
sponsors all worked together to produce themed “extravaganzas” such as “India:
The Ultimate Fantasy” and “China: Heralding the Dawn of a New Era” (Traub
xiv). Like many great merchandise impresarios, the films he saw and theatres he
frequented as a young man influenced Traub. He transformed his memories into
stages of consumption. Traub felt that entertainment was a “great education for
being a merchant.” In order to recapture the exciting feelings inspired by his
visits to the great movie palaces, he created that environment in Bloomingdales.
“To feel that same sense of wonder today,” he writes, “you no longer go to Times
Square; instead, you go shopping” (Traub 12, 13).
The Mall
The notion of going to the mall as a way to pursue entertainment built
upon layers of leisure, which expanded in every way and form after the second
World War. By the 1970s, the mall was a seminal feature of the suburban
wilderness, a key pinpoint in the edge cities that sprouted up in regions just
outside urban centers. With no downtown core and inadequate strip stores, the
mall, as defined by Victor Gruen, became a focal point for a variety of different
activities. The mall was designed to mimic or recreate the city or the town,
complete with a main thoroughfare, side streets, gathering places, fountains, and
central meeting areas (Betsky 126). Like Walter Benjamin’s stroller in the
arcades, one could casually walk through or down these new urban “arcades” to
see and to be seen. This would quickly take the place of the urban window
shopper. The mall also quickly became the surrogate public gathering place. The
mall today is where people gather daily, not just in inclement weather. The mall
provides close parking for mothers with small children and encourages seniors to
come “walk the mall” in the early morning hours. Many community activities,
such as fundraising, now take place in malls (Betsky 126). The mall is where
people now go to spend time; teenagers often hang out there instead of cruising
the strip (Crawford 15). As Margaret Crawford ha 2FWF