Assignment 1 Benjamin Hom

For the first assignment, I decided to visit Manhattan Mall one Friday afternoon. I only stayed for an hour because in all honesty, nothing much happened on my trip there. I was originally against the idea, because at one point in time, I had been somewhat familiar with the area, but I heard that the mall and everything around that area had changed. And it had. I could hardly recognize the place. My first thought walking into Manhattan Mall was, "This is it?" I'm gonna be honest, I immediately noticed the lack of a food court. What kind of mall doesn't have a food court? There wasn't even any little snack places. I guess it started to make sense after a while. I actually thought it was quite ingenious. The lack of any kind of place to just sit, eat, and relax forces people to shop. A lot of people, myself included, can go to the mall for a couple of hours without spending a dime. We just hang out at the food court.

The rest of the layout just seemed bland to me. It just didn't feel like a mall. Half of the mall was just one big JCPenney's with security guards in black suits with black ties standing outside the doors and by the escalators. The other stores were just kinda there. They were attractive; the Footlocker had a pretty sweet display in their front window and all the Aeropostales were inviting but nothing else really stood out. It feels like the mall was just built to maximize profit and for 33rd street and Broadway, that makes perfect sense. I could hardly keep an eye. It was about 4 'o clock on a Friday and there was only a handful of teenagers there. I mostly saw mothers with their children there and there was really no browsing. They all seemed to know what store they were going to and went there. I guess that's Manhattan for you.