On some television shows from America,
you can find young people "hanging around" the town shopping mall. Many girls
and boys after school tell their classmates, "Hey, we're going to the mall."
These shopping malls are to American boys and girls what the main square or the town park
is here. A place for teenagers to meet or what we call "hang out".
The shopping mall is everything under one roof. And what a large roof
it is. It is not unusual to find up to 150 stores, both large and small, in a single
shopping mall. There are usually two to six large department stores or "anchors"
at the ends and in the middle of a shopping mall. Department stores that anchor shopping
malls include such names as Sears, Macy's, BonTon, JC Penneys, KMart.
These department stores sell clothes,
furniture, kitchen appliances, TV sets, and jewelry themselves, but the mall has just
about everything you want: fashion boutiques with names such as Victoria's Secret or
Banana Republic.
There are music stores, often with the word "Records" in the
name. However, these stores sell CDs or cassettes now. You can also expect to find one or
two sports shops. Foot Locker is perhaps the best
known. The clerks there are dressed like sports referees in black and white striped
shirts. And where do all those young people "hang out"?
They are either at the arcade playing video games, watching one of eight to ten possible
movies at the cineplex, or at the Food Court.
The Food Court is usually at the center of the mall.
After shopping or watching a movie, you don't have to go far for something to eat. The
Food Court features fast food from all over the
world. Mexican food is represented by Taco Bell,
Italian food by Pizza Hut, and Chinese food by Orient Express. But of course you can usually find that
great American institution - McDonald's (Mickee Dee's to most Americans) - at the Food Court too.
Shopping malls are not in the center of large cities, like in Europe,
but outside of town where there is plenty of room. A typical mall is a large one or
two-storey building surrounded by "acres of parking" for your car, because most
people come to the mall by car.
These malls have
such names as "Galleria" or "Square" and host fairs, jazz concerts, or country
music festivals. At Christmas time, these malls are packed with anxious shoppers looking
for just that right gift. But whether Christmas or any other time of the year, young and
old people come to the mall where they can find everything in one place. In fact, stores
advertise their mall as the place for "One-Stop
Shopping".
