Erin Young Post 3: What Is? (Discover Phase)

     As our team first developed our target market, we thought we knew what drove us to go to shopping malls and why they were in decline. Our initial beliefs were that malls existed mainly as convenient places to sell clothes and thus began to suffer with the introduction of online shopping and later the pandemic. However, our secondary research demonstrated that malls offer consumers an entertainment area, a social place to meet with friends or family outside of home life. We were shocked to see the impact malls had across the world, and how the function they have as a public forum contributed to political discussions in other countries where they were used as places of protest. We recognized the mall as somewhat of a generic space, our collective image being of white tile and glass windows looking into stores despite our references being malls hundreds of miles apart. While we assumed this was just a design choice our research revealed that the design of the mall allows consumers to detach themselves from the guilt of purchasing by emulating a neutral, almost utopian environment. The mall encourages shopping as an activity and our group quickly learned that the environment itself separated it from online shopping, we couldn't treat them as fulfilling the same purpose.

    Once we settled on treating the mall as a social space outside of shopping, we wanted to conduct research on older Gen Z shoppers who grew up in a time when the mall and online shopping were both available. We suspected that the primary issue surrounding malls would be sustainability, with malls contributing to the issue of rapid consumption of clothing and the fast fashion industry. As it turned out, sustainability rarely came up in any of our interviews, usually only as a reference to the decline in the quality of clothing material. Most of our respondents enjoyed thrifting, but they talked more about the joy of looking for something unique than being sustainable, comparing the experience to a "treasure hunt." When the issue of convenience came up, it was surprising to find that our interviewees would choose between going to the mall or a local store instead of the mall and online shopping. They found the convenience to be in the distance between them and the location, not in the act of looking for an item and browsing. It was also interesting to find that the ubiquitous identity of the mall meant to contribute to the shopping experience now detracted from the social aspects of the environment. Our respondents called the mall "dead and stagnant" noting only the empty areas they saw around them instead of any bright or colorful displays. Finally, respondents praised alternative shopping centers like pop-up markets and craft fairs for their vibrant personalities, becoming more enthusiastic about them despite the higher prices on items. Conducting our research gave us a better sense of the mall as an activity rather than a function, a social space struggling to present a friendly identity.