It's a Mall World

[Cowperson]

Shopping Malls have become one of America's biggest exports . . . . the cover story on Newsweek . . . . and a great shot at the Canadian Navy in this paragraph:

An interesting story on the meaning of Malls through the world:

Indeed, the planet appears deep in the grip of the retail version of an arms race. For years, the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, with 20,000 parking spaces, an ice-skating rink, a miniature-golf course and four submarines (more than in the Canadian Navy) on display, had reigned as the grandest in the world. Last October it was overtaken by the $1.3 billion Golden Resources Shopping Center in northwest Beijing, with 20,000 employees and nearly twice the floor space of the Pentagon. Developers in Dubai are breaking ground on not one but two malls they claim will be even bigger, one of which boasts a man-made, five-run ski slope. Yet all these have been eclipsed by the behemoth South China Mall, which opened its doors in the factory city of Dongguan this year. By the end of the decade, China is likely to have at least seven of the world's 10 largest malls—many of them equipped with hotels, on the theory that no one can possibly see everything in a single day.

To those who malign malls as the epitome of all that is wrong with American culture, their spread is like a pestilenceupon the land. Dissident scholars churn out one dystopian tract—"One Nation Under Goods," "The Call of the Mall"—after another. Critics despair of whole nations willing to cash in their once vibrant downtowns and street markets for a wasteland of jerry-built nowhere, epic traffic jams and marquees ablaze with fatuous English names (Phoenix High Street, Palm Springs Life Plaza and Bairong World Trade Center Phase II). To some, this is an assault on democracy itself. "Shopping malls are great for dictatorships," says Emil Po****, a professor of American studies at Eastern Connecticut State University, who takes students on field trips to malls to study consumer society. "What better way to control folks than to put them under a dome and in enclosed doors?" The "malling of America," in the words of author and famous mall-basher William Kowinski, has become the malling of the world.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10217695/site/newsweek/

Cowperson

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by fotze

Hey cowperson, the jerk store called, they are running out of you.

Why would they call me? You're their all time best seller.

Cowperson

[Coolsurfer79]

The West Edmonton Mall submarines are now inoperational and now just sitting around in the lagoon.

[North East Goon]

It's the new trendy big store plazas ala Westhills and the one off of Deerfoot. I wonder why that is?

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

It's the new trendy big store plazas ala Westhills and the one off of Deerfoot. I wonder why that is?

Because malls are for sissies, real shoppers brave the -25 windchills in outdoor malls with their SUVs It's the Canadian way

[WCE]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Why would they call me? You're their all time best seller.

Cowperson

Oh ya!

Well I slept with your wife!

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by WCE

Oh ya!

Well I slept with your wife!

My wife is in a coma.

http://www.seinology.com/scripts/script-147.shtml

Cowperson

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by Coolsurfer79

The West Edmonton Mall submarines are now inoperational and now just sitting around in the lagoon.

Just like the Canadian Navy

[RougeUnderoos]

says Emil Po****

Laugh. What is this guy's name?

And I don't want to raise the wrath of any Chukkers, but West Ed really is a dump. Although I thought it was a great place when I was 10 (in 1998).

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

says Emil Po****

Laugh. What is this guy's name?

And I don't want to raise the wrath of any Chukkers, but West Ed really is a dump. Although I thought it was a great place when I was 10 (in 1998).

No worries. I think the same. Lets me feel like I am walking through Calgary without the 2 hrs drive to the hole.

[Superfraggle]

To those who malign malls as the epitome of all that is wrong with American culture, their spread is like a pestilence upon the land.

count me in *shiver*. Why would you WANT to stay in a place with so many stores you can't see it all in a day? After an hour in the mall looking for Christmas gifts, the only thing that consumes my mind is the need to get out

[FireFly]

I can only imagine the number of shoe stores in a place like that. And it's cheaper there too... I would love it. It would be chick heaven for all you who hate malls.

[CMPunk]

I thought the Mall of America was bigger then West Ed?

[metallicat]

I guess this city has no claim to fame anymore then.