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Popular Culture Review
Even if one is absolutely against the whole idea of shopping at malls,
there could be a mall that would appeal to that individual. Regardless of political
or philosophic viewpoints, the mall, in the words of Robert Wilson, fascinates.
Wilson writes, “Even people who despise the experience of shopping at malls,
thinking of them as hyper-commercial or degrading or as traps to lure the unwary,
may find the mall concept compelling” (Wilson 83).
The success of the mall, according to Crawford, depends on a process
called “indirect commodification,” a process by which nonsalable objects,
activities, and images are purposely placed in the commodified world of the mall”
(Crawford. 14). What this implies is that anything can become, by association,
subject to commodification once it enters the mall marketplace. Not only does
this mean that objects fall into this arrangement, but also that the whole
environment gets restructured in this way. The mall then transforms everything
into a product designed to be sold or to be entertaining. Anything that passes
through the doors gets reconfigured in line with shopping as an entertainment
experience. A key trope here is the harnessing of the shopping experience “with
an intense spectacle of accumulated images and themes that entertain and
stimulate and in turn encourage more shopping” (Crawford 15, 16). This is
exactly why one encounters merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels, and a host of other
amusements within malls all over North America. A further development of this
theme-based approach is found in the redevelopment of places such as Faneuil
Hall and South Street Seaport. Culture becomes reconfigured to appeal to both
entertainment and shopping (Crawford 16, 17).
The E-Store
Nike Town in Chicago is a veritable museum of popular culture and,
more accurately, to the fusion of sports, marketing, and television. On display in
museum-like cases are shoes and clothing worn by famous athletes-all of whom
are paid Nike endorsers. Hipper than most museums and certainly directly
relevant to the younger consumers, Nike Town in Chicago and the host of Nike
Towns throughout North America appeal to the consumer-as-peruser of popular
culture in the same way that the Hard Rock Cafe appeals to the aficionado of rock
’n’ roll. Nike Town’s concept borrows heavily from the heyday of the
department-store-as-museum concept, but in a much more sophisticated layout.
Nike Town is almost more an “experiential” environment rather than a retail one.
The concepts that go into Nike Town in Chicago (such as the shoe models of
famous athletes and the video clips) are designed to be a form of theatrical
entertainment, a stage for its wares (Pine and Gilmore 63).
The signature Nike Town in Chicago attracts some 12,000 people a day
to the 68,000 square foot museum-like complex. It contains a basketball court,
giant fish tanks filled with tropical fish, and a host of sports memorabilia, which
makes it one of the most popular tourist attractions in Chicago, surpassing the