MOA

This was my second trip to the Mall of America in Minnesota. My first is covered in an earlier entry from July 2006. rereading it, I see that my first impression was one of shock that the complex truly seemed to be the highpoint of many peoples lives in the Minneapolis area. People were actually proud of their shopping mall and saw it as one of the chief highlights foreigners should be shown! At the time, such rampant displays of consumerism horrified me.
What scared me this trip around was the emptiness. Except for the entertainment complex in the middle of the mall, which was still filled with screaming kids, much of the mall seemed empty. The global financial crisis has hit here hard. All the shops have sales, not just symbolic ones, but 50-75% ones. even summer clothes are on sale, and the items have only just hit the shops. In banana republic I found myself the only customer. In Abercrombie and fitch I bought cashmere jumpers for 10 DOLLARS that I know cost 80-120 POUNDS in London, an over 90% savings. i was so shocked that I bought three, but I don’t know why I didn’t get more, at that price. The sales assistant at the till desperately tried to push some last minute add-ons: did I need socks to go with those jumpers? Perfume? Maybe a scarf?
The feeling of emptiness is not only in the mall. The town seems abandoned too, except for some groups of kids wandering about with hoodies concealing their heads. Several signs announce “closing down sale, everything must go!” Some buildings are just boarded up entirely. Pensioners tell me about their shrinking reserve pots and cutting back on meals. Things might be bad in Europe, but they are definitely worse here.