Amid the ubiquity of mall-themed t-shirts and memes, it’s easy to forget that once upon an occasion the shopping center was the hub of American civilization. Back your day, you can comparison shop without getting wet or sunburned, grab a fast bite to eat while catching a movie at the theater and even eat your lunch under an escalator minus the fear of falling on your own behind. But why did malls become so popular, and what caused their downfall?
A current photo essay by photographer Michael Galinsky focuses on some pictures taken in the ’80s that capture the essence of an occasion when 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 was no Twitter, TikTok, YouTube or chat rooms, so the malls were where 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 whilst the centers of many American communities. They certainly were idealized spaces of middle-class white consumption, a place where people went to obtain their needs met.”
Galinsky’s project is element of a more substantial movement to document how the present day mall evolved and eventually stumbled on an result in the ’90s. It’s an occasion capsule of a specific 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, shops gave way 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 search, meet friends and neighbors and steer clear of the dreary, cold weather outside.
By the ’80s, shoppers were increasingly buying third place where they could connect to others, overseas and work. This was where places like clubs, libraries, cafes, bowling alleys and yes, malls started to thrive.
However, whilst 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 They started to resemble the ghettos they certainly were originally designed to prevent and were soon viewed as outdated, uncool, and dangerous. Today, malls continue to exist, but they’re becoming more and more obsolete. With the rise of online shopping, they could be on their last legs. But at least for the time being, there’s one thing that will always remind us of the malls of old: the countless nostalgic photographs that have been taken of them. CLICK to check out Flashback to the Timeless Malls of the 1980s.
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