Amid the ubiquity of mall-themed t-shirts and memes, it’s easy to forget that after upon a period the shopping center was the hub of American civilization. In your day, you might comparison shop without getting wet or sunburned, grab a quick bite to eat while catching a video at the theater and even eat your lunch under an escalator without the anxiety about falling in your behind. But why did malls become so popular, and what caused their downfall?
A current photo essay by photographer Michael Galinsky centers on some pictures taken in the ’80s that capture the essence of a period once the mall was where people went to hang out. The photos feature the classics: the oversized sweatshirts and pants, thick denim jeans, plaid shirts, puffy chested tanks, rhinestone and stud adorned belts and the Pac-Man arcade. In the ’80s there is no Twitter, TikTok, YouTube or chat rooms, therefore the malls were where in fact the young hung out and socialized. https://time.com/3805133/flashback-to-the-timeless-malls-of-the-1980s/
In line with the gallery’s caption, “Malls replaced town squares since the centers of several American communities. They certainly were idealized spaces of middle-class white consumption, a place where people went to have their needs met.”
Galinsky’s project is part of a bigger movement to document how the current mall evolved and eventually came to an end in the ’90s. It’s a period capsule of a particular era that has since been lost to the rise of online shopping and the decline of the big box store.
Through the ’50s and ’60s, department stores gave method to malls that were imagined as modern, idealized town centers for segregated suburbanites. But as war, civil rights movements and recession challenged the 50s nostalgia that the malls were designed to represent, they started to serve an alternative purpose. Malls became a area for consumers to look, meet friends and neighbors and prevent the dreary, winter outside.
By the ’80s, shoppers were increasingly looking for a third place where they could communicate with others, away from home and work. This is where places like clubs, libraries, cafes, bowling alleys and yes, malls started initially to thrive.
However, since the economic changes accelerated in the ’90s and early 2000’s, malls couldn’t match their maintenance. They started to resemble the ghettos they certainly were originally designed in order to avoid and were soon seen as outdated, uncool, and dangerous. Today, malls continue steadily to exist, but they are becoming more and more obsolete. With the rise of online shopping, they could be on the last legs. But at the least for the present time, there’s one thing that will always remind us of the malls of old: the countless nostalgic photographs which have been taken of them. CLICK to check out Flashback to the Timeless Malls of the 1980s.
Akademski krug 