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Alice Galoian
Professor Stephen Topf
English 114B
30 April 2014
Mall Environments
Going to the mall has always been fun and never boring. There are many malls in
California, and the places that are considered to be malls tend to be very different from one
another. The Glendale Galleria and the Northridge Fashion Center are located twenty to thirty
minutes apart and have differences the eye can spot. From its interior designs to its people
visiting; one wouldnt know what to expect. In todays society, to gain more on the
market, modern consumerism needs to be taken into consideration of while capitalism bases the
needs and the wants for the average customer.
The exterior design of the malls affects the market heavily. The Glendale Galleria has
made many changes in the past year to its exterior design. There are many new ways that the
consumer can see the beautiful scenery and definitely spot the difference of all the extra beautiful
things that have been added, but they can spot the difference if they were to be long time
customers. The renovations began in early 2012, and include lighter interior walls and floors,
the addition of eye-catching chandeliers to brighten up the sky-lit rotundas and sleek new
exterior signage (Goff). For example, people love to see their favorite mall look better so that
they could recommend that mall to others without being afraid that the person they recommend it
too will not like it. This will be the result of gaining more customers. Through the changes, the
people came to understand the value of their mall because they changed the meaning of it
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making the environment the high standard type to those that take pride in where theyve grown
up.
As for the Northridge Fashion Center, the city does not have much positive aspects about
design to be talked about. Before the Northridge earthquake took place in 1994, the Northridge
Fashion Center was the place to be. It was better than the average mall because it was a place
that was new and improved, at the time. This comes from the people who have been living in this
area and have been visiting the Northridge Fashion Center for many years. They have not seen
many changes since the year of the earthquake. Except for the reconstruction, in the past ten
years, Northridge has not seen any changes and any new renovations to grab in more customers.
Also, from many visits, the Northridge Fashion Center has long walls as their exterior design and
if one is not looking for the Fashion Center, they will not find it because the first thing seen are
the parking lots stacked on top of each other. This doesnt bring in new people for a surprise, as a
matter of fact; it doesnt bring in new people at all. From the visits I made to the Northridge
Fashion Center, I have not seen many people walking around with their hands full, I have seen
many people come for just the inside playground and leave with empty hands. This mall doesnt
have much to offer even from the exterior.
At the Northridge Fashion Center, the people who were involved in buying products at
the stands in the middle of the famous stores, showed a different set of values than did the people
at Glendale Galleria at the stands. These looked like the types of people who could be residents,
because they were seen walking around with families. Once the individuals at the Northridge
Fashion Center were being approached by the seller, they would at least say something like, not
interested to the seller instead of just ignoring them and passing by like in Glendale Galleria.
And this is the reason that the sellers are mostly standing in their everyday booths at the
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Glendale Galleria and trying not to pay attention to the people that are not taking notice of them
and their booths. But, the Northridge Fashion Center has people who definitely have the value
and idea of respect to be respected. This reflects on the customers value system. The
customers that each mall earns are based on the consumers values of individualism and the
family, economic opportunity and the dignity of work (sweat equity) (Rose 19). The customers
have been coming to these malls just for the sole reason that it is a mall, and they want to spend
their time with friends and/or family. Their value systems differ from one another because, if a
customer sees an employee that seems as though the employee looks richer than them, the
customer automatically tries to put their value up and become like the employee. This proves that
if one tries, they will do anything to fit in, even have the idea of changing their own value
system. This links to the point of having many different customers and having to do many things
to make the customer feel good about themselves. Even if the store wants the employees to look
like models, they should think about how their customers would feel if they entered the store and
saw the employees advertising their products, and looking good in them. The stores would think
that this is attracting customers, but they are not thinking about the customers who would feel
depressed or lower their self-esteem because of what they are seeing.
The people who want to satisfy their needs are the ones who are active in hyper-
consumerism. Teens are the ones who are in this category. They spend without much care and go
out with friends to make memories. And to make these memories, there first needs to be an eye
catching moment with the mall and a person. To catch the new consumers attention, there needs
to be something modern and different to the eye. Hyper-consumerism is the consuming of goods
instead of buying what is needed (De Groote). This is definitely a way of boosting the
market, because there are many ways in which even small stores make you pay for something
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you dont even have a clue about. For example, the Starbucks at the Northridge Fashion Center
has put up the special with the sign (RED), which is charity, making people buy the product
without taking into consideration that the consumer is paying for the charity. The
multicorporation branding effort whose goal is to upsell you to a more expensive beverage so
that a few pennies from the sale will go to charity (Einstein 69). Everything is being done to
market products all over, which makes the consumer lose their value systems because of hyper-
consumerism. They stop looking at the importance of the product and just waste their money
because they want to look like a model and the celebrities pictured in magazines. This makes the
consumer stop thinking about making the shoe fit, and instead making them feel good about what
they just bought. It makes them proud of themselves. This is also a reward system. After
spending much time on walking around and trying out new stores, in the end, they are rewarded
with what they bought. They feel as though they have completed a goal having spent their money
on themselves, which is obviously something very important to them. This is instant
gratification, making it a good thing to the customer and the marketer, but negative towards the
morals that need to be set up for teenagers. The societys values get impacted by the decrease of
the standard of their value systems. This makes the area of where the mall is, become low
standard, just like the people there.
The consumer expects to find their sizes and everything that is convenient to them,
leading them to gratification for themselves. A quote from the book City Limits: Crime,
Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience prove that consumers have the need to be felt
instant gratification amongst them. Alison Wakefield, the author of the book says, In addition to
being insatiable, consumer culture also cultivates a desire for immediate, rather than delayed
gratification (Wakefield 175). Meaning that the residential shoppers appetite is unquenchable
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and needs to be fulfilled every single time they enter the doors of the mall. They need to feel
good about themselves because they, just like any baby, need to be rewarded within positive
reinforcement to continue on doing the things they dont want too or have to do forcefully.
Eventually, they will get in the habit of hyper-consumerism, and that is through gratification.
The Glendale Galleria passes the limits of the expectations of the consumer. Northridge
uses their values and the people method, which gets them to be four out of five stars, and
Glendale uses the design method, which brings them to a 3.9 out of five possible stars. This
shows how close of a difference they have and yet they use absolutely different methods.
Because the expectations are of demand, people are as important to the market as to what
they shouldnt know about the ways the small stores are grabbing their attention. They should
just be aware of the product that the market is trying to sell to them. It is because if they know
they are being fooled by advertisement, they will definitely not buy the product. The consumer
will realize that they are the ones in constant demand, and are the ones with the problem, not the
seller who is putting the high prices on the products. This quote explains how the demand of the
consumer is being withheld; It was then postulated that the unique feature of an unmediated
consumer culture is the extent to which it propagates within individuals the constant demand for
more- more products, more excitement, more stimulation, more experiences (Wakefield). As in,
the way they are being treated. It was put forward that the direct consumer culture grows because
of the command of the individuals that need more.
The expectations that are supposed to be met by the consumer have to be thought of first
by the seller. This makes the consumer think they are in the privileged position because, the
seller wants to tell the customer that its products are the best, and when this gets through to the
customer, it turns out to be the seller knowing what the customer wants. Even though it is a small
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titanium bracelet that seems as though its just a waste of money and time by standing there at
the stands, the seller needs to put all of their effort in and make money out of it. The people dont
even know what they want, they are in for the product and out as soon as possible and that
happens when they dont see anything interesting or creative. This makes it a task for the small
stores to put out signs that need to be the center of their attention. This is so that they wont miss
anything that looks like it can be a bargain, especially at the mall. After making the mark on the
consumer, the stores have imbedded the trust they needed to for the new consumer.
There needs to be a difference in malls, and there are many because of the surroundings
and the environment people live in. The expectations of the consumer should always be met for a
business to grow and stay strong, and in some cases, why not go above and beyond the
expectations. The Northridge Fashion Center and the Glendale Galleria are two very dissimilar
from each other. And the reason they are, is because of the values people carry out at these
different locations. Every area has its own type of society, and every society has its own limits
which makes different types of consumers.









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Works Cited
Rose, Damaris. "Gentrification of the City." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Wakefield, Alison. "City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience." JSTOR.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
De Groote, Michael. "Hyper Consumption: Consumer Mindset Leaves U.S. and Individuals
Vulnerable." DeseretNews.com. N.p., 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Einstein, Mara. "Compassion, INC." JSTOR. N.p., Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Goff, Kelly. "Glendale Galleria Officially Debuts New Sleek Look." Glendale Galleria
Officially Debuts New Sleek Look. N.p., 28 July 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.