4/3/11



Lenox Mall: 3pm on a sunny Friday. The mall boasts three major anchor stores which are Bloomingdale's, Macy's and Neiman Marcus. Lenox Mall, a regional mall, is known in Atlanta as a more upscale mall and this fact is apparent in both the types of stores and the patrons of the mall. People come here not only to shop, but as a social excursion; they dress to impress. With the exception of the "stall" shops on the first floor, the vast majority if not all stores are national chains. This picture depicts the three stories of the mall surrounding the food court. The food court is situated at the very bottom, the left part of the frame is the California Pizza Kitchen, and the third floor (where the photo was taken) has only stores. The "dramatic vista" is visible in this picture, and the mall employs many of the other standard disorientating methods depicted in Crawford's article such as escalators only at the ends or middle of corridors, some natural light but no windows to the outside, limited exits, multiple levels, and reflective surfaces.



Photo #2 depicts the "extra-awesome" hall--i.e. the wing of the mall that is anchored by Neiman Marcus and has the most expensive stores such as Coach, Bvlgari, and Louis Vuitton (officially it's called the Neiman Marcus wing). The organization of these stores into a cohesive unit certainly reinforces class differences within the mall patrons as all of these stores require a a certain level of wealth that separates them from the ordinary GAP/American Eagle/Victoria Secret's stores where one can find a product for every price point--many shoppers probably don't even venture down this hall because they think they can't afford the products or they actually can't afford the products. On the flip side, many of the patrons who live closest to the mall (in Buckhead) probably can and do shop at these more expensive stores and the stores probably attract wealthier shoppers from other areas of the city where these shops aren't available. The fact that the mall is accessible by car and public transportation helps add to the diversity of the shoppers in the mall, and the goods themselves (other than the Neiman Marcus wing) are fairly diverse in price and quality as far as malls go.


Photo 3 probably best depicts Crawford's analysis of the regional and super-regional mall and their attempt to offer the "world" in terms of entertainment experiences. This photo shows the set-up for a fashion show set to take place later that evening. Patrons who visit the show could see fashions carried at the mall and they also could win a gift certificate to various stores. The show is obviously not quite at the same level of expense and extravagance as the amusement parks, shows, and other entertainment that developed in the later stages of super-regional mall development as it seems a little flimsy and cheap--quickly constructed and deconstructed. Because of this smaller scale, the fashion show helps illustrate that Lenox Mall, while certainly well-known to Atlantans, is not a super-regional mall like the WEM.


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