Sample Essay The New Meaning of Shopping Mall and its Implications to the Future Development

THE NEW MEANING OF SHOPPING MALL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

 

1.      Introduction

Despite the growth of various Internet shopping services, shopping for most purpose means physical visits to a shopping site (Ruby Roy Dholakia 1999). The most frequent visited site is either a supermarket or a shopping mall. According to some marketing literatures, there are two basic types of shoppers. Some shoppers, which are driven by utilitarian concerns, consider shopping as a form of work (Babine et al., 1994; Bart and Athol, 1991). In other words, unless purchases are made, a shopping trip is meaningless for this group. For others, shopping is not justified in utilitarian outcomes, enjoyment and excitement, i.e. hedonistic values, experienced during the shopping trip have their own unique status. Consequently, shopping may represent both instrumental and experiential processes (Crowley et al., 1992). Shoppers may derive pleasure from the vital process, in addition to the products purchased (Rook, 1987).

 

It seems that pleasure derived from the process of shopping is further enhanced by the culture of consumption. As there are massive improvements in material life and the attendant cultural practices, the ‘culture of consumption’ or ‘consumerism’ is constituted (2003). Gradually, the culture of consumption is being emphasized as a consumption of signs and images instead of a simple appropriation of utilities. It suggests that people in consumption societies may consciously seek for self-image and status through leisure activities and in the manners of dressing, eating and living. In this logic, shopping seems to be one of the ways to promote lifestyles in terms of self-image and status establishment.

 

This changing shopping pattern may have some impacts on the development of shopping mall, especially in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong undoubtedly is famous for being a ‘Shopping Paradise’ over the world. Over decades, many shopping malls are well established in response to the greater demand. The Landmark in Central, Pacific Place in Admiralty, Times Square in Causeway Bay, City plaza in Takeo Shang, Harbor City in Tsimshatsui and New Town Plaza in Satin are good examples. Recent developments include Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, amp in Kwan Tong, etc. These shopping malls not only offer a comfortable and attractive place for people to buy, to meet, to gather and to eat, varieties of services in provision of recreational and catering facilities are also catered for people’s relaxation and enjoyment.

 

According to Pamela (2004) today’s shopping malls are not just about shopping, but about individuality and entertainment. It is suggested that shopping mall is not merely a place for commodities exchange and leisure, it could be a place for buying images and promoting lifestyles. This research study aims at examining the interrelationship between consumption, image, lifestyle and shopping culture and hence evaluating the new meaning of shopping mall. Implications to its future developing will be also studied.

 

2.      Goals and Objectives

The goals of this research study are (i) to evaluate the new meaning of shopping mall nowadays and (ii) to study its implication to the future development. To achieve these goals, some objectives are suggested as follows.

Ø          To conduct literature review on the fundamental concepts of consumption, image, lifestyle and shopping culture.

Ø          To provide background study on shopping mall development in Hong Kong.

Ø          To examine the strategies on developing shopping malls in Hong Kong in response to the changing consumers’ needs and shopping behaviour nowadays.

Ø          To examine the interrelationship between the above 4 concepts and to build a qualitative model.

Ø          To explore the new meaning of shopping mall to Hong Kong people through multiple case studies and give direction for developing shopping mall.

 

3.      Scope of the study

This research study is to examine the interrelationship between the above 4 concepts and to build a qualitative model, and hence explore the new meaning of shopping mall in Hong Kong by case studies of some selected regional shopping malls in Hong Kong nowadays.

 

4.      Literature Review / Background Study

Consumption Culture

Hong Kong has become a city of consumption since the past few decades. Consumption is a process by which goods and services are acquired and used to satisfy certain economic needs (David Jury and Julia Jury, 1995). According to McCracken, 1986, consumption increasingly serves the symbolic need of individuals, surpassing the practical and utilitarian needs. This coincides with the idea of Chua (2003), the ‘culture of consumption’ or ‘consumerism’ is constituted, as there are massive improvements in material life. He further suggested that product projects image.

 

Image

In consumption society, people are consciously seeking image and status thorough self-image and lifestyle. Image is something which is difficult to concretize as it only deals with surface impression. Self-image is something that is routinely created and sustained in the reflexive activities, such as buying clothes, accessories and performing lifestyle.

 

Lifestyle

For the term lifestyle, Laser (1963) defined it as a systems concept. It refers to a distinctive or characteristic mode of living, in its aggregative and broadest sense, of a whole society or segment thereof. It is concerned with those unique ingredients or qualities, which describe the style of life of some culture or group, and distinguish it from others. It embodies the patterns that develop and emerge from the dynamics of living in a society. In short, lifestyle describes how people go about their daily life.

 

Shopping Culture

‘Shopping Paradise’ is a one of the best depictions of the Hong Kong City. This phenomenon should be attributed to the growth of shopping mall culture in Hong Kong. In the past, shopping refers to one who might want or need to buy commodities. However, shopping is more than an economic activity for the exchange of daily necessities nowadays (W.M. Yeung & Timothy KEY. Wong, 2003). According to Lithonia & Maenad (1993), a pleasurable shopping is understood as consumption-oriented movement in a space whether one has the possibility of making purchases. Similar idea has been adopted by Shield (1992), he suggested that shoppers are closely related to the environment from the view of consumption, even though he or she did not make any purchases at all.

 

5.      Methodology

This research study is mainly carried out by using qualitative research method. First, literature review will be conducted by data collection via reading textbooks, journals, newspaper clippings, etc. Second, interviews will be conducted with the shoppers so as to understand the shoppers’ inner-thoughts, feelings and personal details as well as their experience and narration of data analysis. Besides, property managers, leasing managers and promotion managers of the chosen shopping malls will be also interview so as to understand the developers’ strategies on developing the shopping malls.

 

By gathering the interviewing data and analyzing the empirical data, it is expected that a qualitative model between the 4 concepts will be built and therefore the new meaning of shopping malls could be explored give certain implications.

 

7.      Work Schedule

11/2005                Submission of final proposal

04/2006                Submission of first draft of literature review/background

08/2006                Submission of first draft of findings and analysis

10/2006                Submission of first draft of completed dissertation

12/2006                Submission of final dissertation