The Call of the Mall and an update on Miranda

Going with a two-fer post since Andy must not be getting his weekly allowance of Amazon links and Miranda posts!

Call of the Mall

Call of the Mall by Paco Underhill is an excellently written work that explores the geography of mall usage as well as a bit of a history of suburban and urban malls. First off, I was caught by the writing style as it was easy to follow and yet full of good information. Paco explores everything from mall security to food courts to discount jewelry stores being next to Tiffany's. He goes into analyzing the shopping habits of men, women, and teenage girls. He talks about the barrier between the mall and store and how to entice customers inside. All in all, this is a must have for any retail person.

I am into retail but from the web side of things and really enjoyed trying to make connections into that space. It is a little more limited in that aspect but still a good mental exercise. For instance, it is known that as people stay in the mall for a longer period of time they are more and more likely to buy things which is why you have the food court, rock climbing, and movie theatres. Imagine in the web world on ebay where you could have flash games that would allow you to stay and watch your auctions while killing time. Ebay could then put up other similar auctions to the ones you are watching...

Either way, this is a must have for retailers and a fun read for hobby anthropologists.

Miranda

Miranda is doing well. Occassionaly we have a little bit of fussiness and lately she has been fighting food. But otherwise she is doing great. She now is able to turn from her back to her stomach, but can't get back. Since she hates being on her stomach this leads to Michelle or I having to flip her over once she starts screaming. She is starting to use her hands more and more. Just tonight she was trying (you could tell by the furrowed brow) to reach a little white ring hanging above the mat. Of course, once she kicked her leg (I think she thought that was the arm) and another she touched it with the right arm and them kept opening and closing the left hand. Just a pure treasure right now. I am sure Jay is going to love watching his son learn the same sorts of things!