The Valley Fair mall class assignment was an enjoyable learning experience. It gave me a new perspective of the mall world and how Valley Fair can cause problems for the San Jose community. This project helped me look beyond the standard stereotypical view of the mall as just a place to shop, socialize, and be entertained. We mainly had to walk around observe and answer a set of questions relating the architecture, society, culture, food, and structure of the Valley Fair universe. Our main objective was to discover how all these aspects can together impact the visitors of the mall. We did this through observing the mall as a whole and by visiting three stores of our interest. The three I visited were Lacoste, Solstice, and Sports Authority. I understood that each boutique/store was somehow including and excluding a group of people through size, age, race, gender, or income. Lacoste in particular was mainly trying to attract a younger audience with their music, young models, and posters displaying bright athletic, fashion forward type clothes. The brand was created and named after a famous French tennis player René Lacoste. He chose the crocodile as his brand logo because he was nicknamed “Le Crocodile” by his peers for his tenacious personality out on the court. The main people being actively excluded from this store are old people and people with average to low income.
The Valley Fair mall holds many positive possibilities for its consumers and people from the San Jose community. It is known to be a great place for public gatherings for its beautiful atmosphere, variety of stores and food eateries that can fit most needs or budgets. It is a great place to bring family and children as there are many stores and activities for both children and adults. Some of the more popular children stores throughout the mall are Lego, Build-A-Bear Workshop, and The Disney Store. There is also a playground area and gaming stores for children and young adults. The mall is a place that combines a variety of items from clothing to shoes, jewelry, beauty supplies, electronics, etc. and food all into one building. The idea of combining all these necessities and demands into one structure has made it an ideal place to go to save people both time and money in terms of transportation. Furthermore, the constant sense of security and comfort that the mall brings to its visitors aside from being open late and well light has made it a safer and more pleasurable place for people to go for shopping and daily tasks.
Looking back at observations of the mall’s architecture and class discussions, the true world that the makers of Valley Fair were trying to create can be realized. However, regardless of common perception, the mall is not really a place where everyone iss treated equally. The architecture and lighting represented in the mall are eluding a sense of fantasy through tall columns, high ceilings, and marble floors much like the Greek temples of the ancient times. I came to realize that the structure of Valley Fair mall encourages segregation and exclusion by saying that you can judge a person based off stereotypical points of view. (i.e. based off looks, the way people are dressed, whether or not they’re a millionaire, etc.) Nevertheless, this is wrong because you cannot judge people based on appearances. People accept this way of thinking because it is how the majority live their lives. I could see this segregation separated by organization of stores throughout the mall. It sees that white high class females are the ideal consumers of the mall and the first floor is luxurious and spacious with restaurants, marble floorings, and expensive designer boutiques to appeal to these high class white females. The second floor is casual with carpet flooring, tighter walking spaces, a food court, and more affordable stores. It is mainly focusing on the middle to low income population which mostly consists of youth, Asians, and Hispanics. According to San Jose statistics, only 41% of the population have’ an income of $100,000 or more. Since the majority of the mall is mainly focusing on white female consumers, it can be said that Asian and Hispanic populations are being discriminated against. Overall, the mall’s structure is one of the major problems that are creating discrimination by size, age, race, gender, or income.
Some solutions we should consider to prevent this form of segregation and inequality from occurring in our community is to change the structure of U.S. society. More specifically, we should not create malls with conditions that favor certain social groups over others. In other words, malls should be designed to promote more racial and ethnic diversity by featuring stores suited for the statistical average income and racial groups of the city. Furthermore, they should not be made so luxurious that only the minority could afford to enjoy its services. All businesses should treat their customers and visitors equally regardless of their appearance, race, age, and sex so that there would be less resistance to consumers enjoying malls. Stores should have a wider variety of models from different races for more distributed racial representation so as to allow a wider range of people to feel included. This strategy may even improve advertising, sales, and profit for a majority of vendors.
Response is quite thorough.
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