NU 6: What I Hate About Malls
The “mall culture” in the Philippines has tremendously grown by leaps and bounds. What started out as a small endeavor in the early 80’s by a budding Chinese entrepreneur has taken the country by storm and a proof to this is the presence of so many malls in the metropolis and nearby provinces and more are to come in the future. While there are a host of benefits that can be derived from “malling” (yes, the word has been coined for this reason) like the convenience of having all the things needed under one roof, there are still a lot of things to consider. Obviously, there are advantages and disadvantages that go with it but for the purpose of this discussion, I will focus on the reasons why I hate malls.
Personally I am not fond of going to the malls. Let me give you some of my reasons. I would like to start by saying that malls create big traffic build up especially whenever the giant malls stage their season sales, the traffic within the vicinity of the malls can be very terrible. And the moment we enter the parking lots, we are to pay parking fees!!! I just don’t agree and see the logic why malls should charge parking fee when people who drive would not be able to patronize their stores, if they are not be provided such space. I think that shoppers are not to be charged especially if they have proofs of purchase like receipts and the like. They could devise a way to handle this measure and possibly adapt this as a matter of policy.
Inside the malls especially during the holidays, these places are simply overcrowded which probably means that nobody actually monitors whether these malls can still accommodate the big volume of mall-goers making shopping really very hard. There are also a lot of marketing people like those who sell insurance or those who would really push you hard to draw coupons and announce everyone a winner (no one actually wins in this draw because in the end, you would have to pay for their products) I just don’t understand why the management of these malls allow these unscrupulous individuals victimize these innocent shoppers.
Another disadvantage of shopping in malls is the price of the commodities. There are certain products that are actually sold almost half the price in other places (Check out Divisoria,Baclaran, Raon, etc.) The long queues in the grocery especially during the night time can also be very irritating. It sometimes makes me wonder why they have to put so many counters and leave them unattended, which makes me believe that either the mall is understaffed or the scheduling of the breaks is not align with the high volume of shoppers. They should, at least, check that so as not to aggravate inconvenience for the consumers. There are also instances when the staff is not as polite or good mannered, there should be constant customer service trainings and reminder to the staff that the customers are “Kings” and that they must be treated with utmost respect.
There are also security hazards since many untoward incidents happen within the premises of malls some of which have been in the news recently. The security guards I think must do better than just stick their scanners in the bags of the consumers. They must also practice consistent security regardless of age or gender; I have observed that men usually get a more thorough inspection than women.
The long line for ATM withdrawals is another thing I do not like about malls, the mall owners must see to it that there are enough ATM machines for everyone and that credit card payments can be easily made by the cardholders, there are instances where they go offline and this gives a lot of trouble to the consumers.
As for the mall owners/tycoons, I simply detest some of the unfair labor practices being implemented in the country. The problem of contractualization, also known as the 555 because contracts are renewed every five months, has been a perennial issue among these minimum wage earners working in these malls. It is true that they provide jobs but the workers deserve better labor conditions and fair treatment.
Lastly as a father, I do not like the practice of allowing students to go inside malls during class hours and many of these malls are even situated near the university belt. I think there should be stricter regulatory measures in the form of statutes, legislations or ordinances that may affect this so as not to distract and lure students from going to the malls instead of attending their classes.
There is without a doubt that the people will still continue to frequent these malls despite all the reasons I have mentioned in this paper. Malls will continue to increase in numbers and there’s nothing much we can do about it. I just hope that those who can help to address these issues will act now and start imposing the much needed improvements to make shopping a better experience for everyone. Until then, my perception of these malls remains the same…3
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