I drove to work instead of taking the train today because... well, because I'm tired. The beginning of the semester is already kicking my butt, and I couldn't wrap my mind around biking, and getting wet, and biking in the dark, and schlepping up and down stairs, and sitting for hours in a train, with no control over the temperature.
(I think I'm fighting a cold.)
And on the drive in, it occurred to me I had time to stop at the mall and buy a watch to replace the Timex Ironman that got wet in the rain and went belly-up a few weeks ago, following the Swiss Railway and Swiss Army watches that have failed me in recent months, and that I don't seem to be able to find time to get repaired.
And once I thought of the mall, I thought of all the other errands I need to do.
And in one stop, I was able to buy a watch, some birthday presents for The Offspring (eight next week), the basketball I promised him months ago and the lap desk I promised weeks ago, Offspring-sized underwear, a cup of coffee, and a handful of other items I've been needing. AND a lot of it was on sale.
In the city, this would have required several errands, or a single trip encompassing several bus and/or subway rides, or a long loopy multi-stop journey by bike. In my mall-less home town, it probably would have required a drive to the next town, and maybe a couple of different next towns.
I've always thought of malls as horrible places, earth-destroying in their sprawl and soul-destroying in the homogeneity of their ostentatiously manufactured indoor environments. But today I experienced the mall as a place of personal and environmental efficiency. In fact, had I not run out of time, I could even have gotten more errands run.
Worth thinking about some more....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Huh. But I see your point, even though my problem with malls is that they are generally all chain chain chain stores, and I would rather not patronize them. I speak with forked tongue though, because I do buy an awful lot of weird stuff on Amazon because it's so easy and usually priced very well.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the mall is not unlike the fact that cities are vastly more energy efficient than suburbs - an apartment house is cheaper to heat per person than a house, etc.
You have a good point, Heide. My choice to live here where the malls are few and far between is a conscious one, yet I wonder if/how it balances out environmentally with the online buying I do to make up for it. I know I'm not contributing much to the economy either way, a Catch-22 in itself, I guess.
ReplyDelete