MALL CULTURE

MALL CULTURE

Mall culture is nothing but an exploitative phenomenon mastermind by materialistic sharks of a blind imitation of the wild west for personal gains – and even at the cost of small traders and entrepreneurs who provide spot service to the community while these huge magnet like sophisticated centralized retail chains attract the gullible customer through media and advertisement blitz craze. Where? Of course, not in villages and in towns but in metropolis like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Banglore, Kolkatta etc.
Don’t you all present here think that at best we can name it an elite culture to which ordinary person with meager means have no access. Sometimes even if they try and attempt they do it on their own peril. The glitter, the display, the temptation, the marketing gimmicks compel the ordinary man to gulp more than they can chew and pushing them into debt traps.
I feel very strongly that men with means and substantial means can only afford the luxury of mall because they are meant for elites and affluents.
My next point against the topic is this mall culture is simply widening the chasm between the haves and have-nots. It is creating disparity between the rich and the poor. The rich grow richer and the poor poorer – a stage finally reaches when the society will be left with few Birlas, Ambanis and Tatas and the rest grovel in misery and unemployment. What a miserable society it will be!
Now I would like to remind you all that the rural community is not a fraction or part of India, it is India itself, almost the whole of it. Keep in your mind the fact that the rural community makes more than 80% of India’s population. They live in villages where these money leagues feel shy of venturing into. Why should they? Obviously not much of money there. Hence this is the culture which can not become the culture of whole nation. So I think we can call the mall culture as mal culture.
I just fail to understand why we prefer malls than traditional markets just to stuff ourselves with high-priced articles and eatables like pizzas, burgers and giving green vegetables a go by. Think over again and again that fast food and fitness do not go together.
Though India is all set to be a Mecca for shoppers but guard against shop holism, warn experts. Malls give us chance to shop but isn’t it turning us into shopaholics? Beware shop holism is a disorder and needs attention.

Before proceeding on to the topic I would like to ask you a question - would you like to go for shopping in crowded place, in alleys of city’s markets full of paan stains , dirt, spitting, litter or foul odour or a comfortable environment that provide shoppertainment a combination of shopping and entertainment. Yes, I know your answer.
Good morning to all. Honourable chairperson members of jury and the distinguished gathering present here. Today I am standing before you to support the motion i.e. shopping mall culture in India.
The answer to that question which I asked earlier was that we all like to go for shopping in air-conditioned complexes rather than traditionally-high streets. Don’t you all present here think shopping malls have changed the way India does shopping. Shopping has never been so easier earlier. Shopping malls have changed shopping from an ordeal to an outing.
I want to tell you that this year at the peak of puja season in Kolkatta the alleys of city’s iconic new markets were far from crowded. There was not a single queue to be found. Now malls have become a community hubs where people congregate, entertain themselves and also buy things. I very strongly say that today people take air-conditioning and parking facilities as basic. Value for money has changed value to time.
As my honourable opponents has submitted that malls are for affluent and elites. I would like to tell them by example of a lady Vandana Patel, the wife of a farmer who drives from her home from Kelol to Ahmedabad’s big bazaar just for shopping. Do you know what she says ,” despite the distance it makes sense for us to go to a mall because we get everything for everyone under one single roof.
My next argument in favour of the topic is that malls are the prime drivers of an organized retail revolution in the country. At the new rate new ones are coming up. It is virtually a mall a minute. According to recent KSA Technopac researvh of Indian retail industry there were just 3 shopping malls operating in India by 2000 and by 2007 that figure is expected to reach 343 with 54 malls coming up in Delhi only and here I would like to tell them that significant number of malls are coming up in small towns also and they will represent new temples of retail worship.
I firmly reject the opinion shared by my friends that when a mall opens most of the visitors are window shoppers. Do you know what ways NeetA Chopra head of marketing Westside “ we feel the growth will be in malls as shopping as now a form of entertainment and the cost of functioning a mall will be much lower than traditional streets where rents are astronomical and and footfall is unpredictable.
My last argument in the favour of the topic is that people do not miss bargaining in the mall rather they feel quite confident that the store owner is not cheating them. Even if then also some of my friends want to do bargaining then let me tell them that there are kiosks in the basement of some of the malls. They can go there and do the bargaining as much as they want.
Not only this events, promotions, and competitions are regularly held and competitions like DJ wars, product launches contests beauty competitions are held in the atrium.
At last I want to say that mall boom has created its own economy its own brands. The future may include both the large mega malls and smaller malls. At the focus of this churning is the Indian consumer and shopping experience for him to buy from title of rock album become bigger, better, faster and more …..