![\"Shopping](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/mall.jpg\")
<\/a>And when my friends and I wanted to get together, we usually hit up the mall. After sitting and eating in the food court, we would walk up and down each side of the mall, mocking each other\u2019s alleged sense of style and peering at things we couldn\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n
An odd benefit of being a mall rat in those days was you also saw things you may not normally have been interested in. Back then we had a store called The Nature Company. I would look at the different stones and mishmash of items and think, \u201cMaybe this will be on my Christmas list.\u201d Shucks, I remember wanting a desktop fountain even though I didn\u2019t have a desk.<\/p>\n
The mall was a way of exploring the world and what it had to offer without paying the cost of museum admission.<\/p>\n
These days, however, I fear the mall, my own personal zocalo, is endangered. Online retailing giant Amazon.com has become everyone\u2019s go-to for gifts and the like. It makes sense after all, with our hectic lifestyles and busy schedules, that we would turn to whatever is most convenient. By the time I get home from work, I\u2019m too tired to round up the kids to visit the stores.<\/p>\n
But what if what is more convenient is actually stifling us?<\/p>\n
For example, when I visit Amazon.com, I purposely go straight to something I already had or have researched. I know I want the Calico Critters House for my daughter so I search that specific term and within a few minutes purchase the item for her. There\u2019s no wasting time, right?<\/p>\n
The problem is there isn\u2019t any browsing or discovering a new interest by chance. There\u2019s also no daydreaming by my children as they walk down each aisle.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no element of surprise.<\/p>\n
Toys R Us, which filed for bankruptcy in September, is one of those places that needs us to browse. I visited the store recently and spoke with an associate, who said he didn\u2019t think his job was really in jeopardy. \u201cIf we go down, all of these guys suffer, too,\u201d he said, gesturing to toys that included Barbie, LEGO, Pokemon figures and mechanical contraptions.<\/p>\n
I wish I were more optimistic, but I fear convenience has gotten the better of us.<\/p>\n
The other thing we lose out on is human communication. When you\u2019re waiting in line, you sometimes talk to fellow shoppers. In fact, last year I met Mayor Mark Arapostathis\u2019s mom at Macy\u2019s! I would never get to do something like that dropping an item into my online shopping cart.<\/p>\n
This time around I am determined to support Grossmont Shopping Center during the holidays. I am going to devote a little bit of time to browsing the aisles and choosing gifts I think befit my family and friends. Even better, Grossmont has started to post signs around its parking lot to encourage shoppers to get their steps in for better health, so there\u2019s that as well.<\/p>\n
While I know the mall has its shortcomings \u2014 I would like a Gap, a Banana Republic and a few other trendier stores \u2014 it is still my local gathering place. Consider joining me at Grossmont for the holidays this year even if it\u2019s only to get your steps in and chow down at the food court. Who knows, you may just find something you never knew you wanted.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Genevieve A. Suzuki es una abogada local que vive y trabaja en La Mesa.<\/em><\/p>\n Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Genevieve Suzuki Growing up in the \u201880s and \u201890s, there was one thing I could always count on: the mall. When I was bored, I\u2019d go to the mall and peruse shelves of music, books and gadgets. I could window shop and dream about becoming an attorney dressed in Escada. (At least half of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":729,"featured_media":224701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Shopping mall rat in an Amazon world","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}