How the shopping mall reflects American hegemony
In a country where shopping is a popular pastime of the population and a typical tourist activity, the institution shopping mall has gained international prestige. Indeed, the underlying economic system of capitalism and the consumerist mentality are iconically embodied by shopping malls. Ironically, shopping malls have been imitated and thus imported by many other nations, several of whom might be considered politically opposite to the United States of America. Before we look at its role beyond the US, let us investigate why shopping is so popular in the States and what role the shopping mall plays in society.
Shopping as a road to happiness?
Pursuit of happiness is a fundamental right anchored in the constitution of the United States of America. It is no secret that the happiness many people envision is related to money, as represented by the national ideal called the American dream. For decades, the end goal is no longer satisfying needs or accumulating wealth. Marilyn Monroe said: "Happiness is not in money, but in shopping."
In times where fashions dictate purchase and consumerism is omnipresent, compulsive buying disorder may become a trendy sickness. Pathologic oniomania – "abnormal impulse for buying things," as defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary – is already popularized by means of popular authors like Sophie Kinsella who published a series with titles related to a shopaholic. Statements of self-defense like "I am not a shopaholic. I am helping the economy," may reveal a grain of truth, too. For decades, shopping has been (mis)used to satisfy not only physical but also emotional and other needs, arguably also some of economic and political nature, too. More specifically, the shopping mall as an epitome of a consume-oriented culture may even be regarded as a symbol of American hegemony.
consumerism: in economics, [denotes] the theory that consumer spending, [...] is the principal driver of economic growth [...] of a capitalist economy. (Brittanica)
A brief history of the shopping mall
Where did the infatuation with shopping begin? Perhaps with Victor Gruen’s design of a shopping mall. This architect sought a remedy for the weather conditions in Minnesota which only enabled 126 days of shopping. Hence, he designed an enclosure for several shops with air-conditioning and heating, Wrigley and Lowe narrate in Reading Retail. The concept took off. From 1960 to 1980, malls spread like a wildfire across the United States, according to Wrigley and Lowe. By 2005, Statemaster counted about 50,000 shopping centers and malls in the United States, excluding online shopping groups and downtown stores, according to Duncan and Goddard. The opening and spread of shopping malls
across the nation was enabled by the growing mobilization of the population via private possession of cars on the one hand, and widespread suburbanization on the other hand. Bigger, higher, taller, seemed to be the aim of architecture, which soon led to the erection of mega-malls like the Mall of America. The overarching goal of shopping malls, of course, is to yield profit. The utilitarian and social purpose of shopping malls has therefore been complemented by entertainment: live music and cinemas in smaller malls, and areas of recreation from gardens and rollercoasters, water parcs, golf and ice-skating areas, as can be found in the Mall of America. Successfully, malls have been transformed into places "where people gather to shop, meet friends, eat in restaurants, visit entertainment venues, live and work," Mauk and Oakland observe.
Democracy declared and defied
Regarding the system of American capitalism, supply and demand govern the market, as Tiersky and Tiersky point out in their introductory work U.S.A. Customs and Institutions. Indeed, customers flock to malls for a matter of convenience. The mass orders these commercial enterprises can make enable low prices and a broad selection of products, offering the customers the opportunity to save both time and expenses, as Sieper underlines. Beyond mere practical considerations, mass consumption at malls is primarily a product of popular culture. With the help of the media, this culture has adopted a particular mindset inclined towards indulgence, related to the American dream of acquiring wealth. In this sense, the
mentality promoting consume culture is linked to political ideas. Significantly, Duncan and Goddard express: "American life is marked by a psychology of abundance that turns aristocratic dreams into democratic consumption as all classes can afford to purchase from the same stores." In reality, the democratic nature of capitalism as exemplified by shopping malls is an issue of controversial debate. With remarkable passion, Opdycke refutes this claim to democracy, arguing that the main streets of downtowns in the 1940s enabled different races, classes and economic strata to meet, whereas urbanization, the private automobile and shopping malls rather perpetuate social divisions. Furthermore, the democratic element of shopping malls is undermined by the very system that promotes it: credit cards tempt many to overspend, Duncan and Goddard are not the only ones to denounces. The hedonistic cry "Gimme more," has tacitly transformed into "Gimme more than I can afford," bringing ruin to both social cohesion and individual happiness. Fundamentally, the mechanisms of capitalism undergirding shopping
malls may even be connected to a specific worldview, namely Darwinist "survival of the fittest",as Mauk and Oakland point out. Consequently, the gap between poor and rich increases even further as well as the difference between those living within and beyond their means. The outcome of which can be seen even among the wealthiest of stars with extravagant parties and luxurious lifestyles. And yet, happiness may look more like a smiling child or an elderly couple walking through a beautiful countryside.
Reinforcement through advertisement
Hollywood, Netflix and other mass media contribute to the consumer-orientation of American culture and perpetuate precisely this fatal desire to spend and overspend. Since customer’s needs are soon satisfied, desires are created and fueled with advertisements, which Sieper even terms as "manipulation" in The Student's Companion to the U.S.A. By displaying frequently changing, expensive fashions on protagonists, stars, icons and influencers, fans become dissatisfied with their attire and property, desiring more and more. An extreme illustration of this tendency is "shein", an online fashion store offering new products daily. Brand names have become a status symbol heavily reinforced by series and social media. Paradoxically, fashion and technology pretend to be an expression of "individualism", with each subculture promoting their specific lifestyle products.
Since media are mostly consumed via internet, they in turn help the economy to collect data whichthen enables micro-targeting, a customized preselection of advertisements for selling products. In this way, consumption of media and purchase of products both contribute to economic growth for the United States of America. As a result, it is highly likely that shopping will continue to be advertised in books, films, series and music. Yet, dissenters also raise their voices, like Shania Twain's song Ka-Ching!, which exposes materialism and consumerism as a higher maxim that can govern life so powerfully that it resembles an idol. For obvious reasons, the perils of shopping still remain underrepresented in media.
We live in a greedy little world
That teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly
Then turn around and spend it foolishly
We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it's shoppin' every Sunday at the mall
(Shania Twain: Ka-Ching! 2003)
Shopping malls today
Of course, the times are a changing. Shopping malls are decreasing rapidly, while internet shopping is increasing dramatically. Ethical movements have gained publicity, promoting causes such as fair trade and sustainability, promoting charity shops and secondhand markets. At the same time, critical voices speak of hypocrisy, of greenwashing. Some ethical brands are so expensive and profit-oriented that they seem to sell a good conscience. The financial crisis of 2008 has left marks, and global instabilities also impact import and export as well as commerce within the United States of America. Nonetheless, shopping has remained a popular pastime for many Americans, and will probably continue, despite the transfer to e-retail while the glory of shopping malls fades with its decaying empty buildings. Perhaps the desire to consume is deeply human, since other countries of non-capitalistic governments have adopted the American model of the shopping mall.
American Hegemony
After the shopping mall had conquered the United States American entrepreneurs, the military, and US administrations turned to the world for growth, influence, and power. The main reason for this outward turn is the relentless hunger for growth stemming from Anglo-Saxon capitalism's logic. Tripel’s work on hegemony is used to define the concept. He defined them as the aggregate structural resources and ideational resources.
Hegemony is a type of leadership where the hegemon has a preponderance in categories while also providing a public good. It can be categorized in aggregate structural Resources and ideational Resources.
American Adipositas – From Stars and Stripes to Fries and Nikes
To visualize this American hunger, 118 of 195 countries have at least one of 38,000 McDonald’s restaurants within their borders - 119 before the company shut down its operation in the Russian Federation due to the invasion of Ukraine. But Coca-Cola is available in all countries, even those not recognized by the United Nations. Besides these two blue chips, American companies and brands dominate the global market. In combination with that, the USA boasts the largest GDP in the world. Consequently,
the United States has a significant preponderance in economic resources and fulfills the first hegemonic category. And there was one place where people had access to the full scale of American consumerist glory and the experience of American economic dominance, the shopping mall. Before reading my co-authors' part, we did not know that besides the flagship for boundless consumerism, the mall was also framed as a vehicle for human rights, democracy, community building, and prosperity for all (above). Shopping was not only a way to happiness but also a way to assert dominance designed in Washington, D.C. assembled all over the world.
The American Dream – an Ideational Nimbus
The United States emerged as a major pole after WWII. It found itself straddling in a diametrical relationship with its antipode in the UdSSR. This diametrical relationship led to the cold war which included a series of hot proxy wars between the two powers. Most notably in Vietnam, Korea and Afghanistan. Today the United States invests the most resources into its military than any other nation. Which shows again that they have an inherent preponderance of military power.
A hegemon also must convince its followers to follow voluntarily. This is meant by ideational resources, the legitimacy of American Hegemony. The often-cited ideational core of US politics is the American Dream, freedom and justice. As shown before on a national level, these messages were a marketing coup that allowed malls to become a prison of consumerism rather than freedom and justice. However, many people get caught up in the Rags-to-Riches-tale. This is where the US clearly demands and receives legitimacy as an ideational hegemon.
Providing the Pax Americana
The last question to answer is if the US provides a public good for its followers. It does provide the good of national security from Seoul to Doha while shouldering most of the burden.
Not only is the United States checking the hegemon boxes, but many argue that it is the only hyperpower in the history of mankind. This means that they are the dominant military, cultural and economic power on all five continents.
The WTO and the Shopping Mall
But what does that have to do with the malls? Now that we have established the weight that Uncle Sam brings to the scale let us look at how it was institutionalized. To understand how American Hegemony developed silently besides the numbing military interventions it is necessary to take a cold look on the history of the World Trade Organization. The WTO is an intergovernmental organization that defines and regulates international economic policies and trade. After the first negotiations following World War II a round of 23 countries discussed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
GATT had the purpose of deconstructing protectionist policies and enabling international trade. So far so good. During the height of Mallmerica in the 1970s, the United States silently introduced the Trade Act. The purpose of this act was to enable American companies to enforce their privileges not only at home but also abroad. To enforce these privileges the companies were empowered to be able to force the US government to sanction countries that would not oblige their interests. Which essentially means that the blue-chips’ boards influence US foreign policy. To save face and not sanction other countries directly the United States signed the founding memorandum of the WTO after the other states agreed to include the Trade Act into the constituency of the WTO. In addition to that, the US insisted on another amendment, TRIPS. As shown before, the United States is the largest economy in the world and therefore weaker countries must adhere to these WTO regulations to be able to trade with the US. To sum it up, first, the WTO opens the market for US products, then dominant US products oust domestic ones, and finally, TRIPS ensures the monopoly abroad.
To illustrate this process: China joined the WTO in 2001 and only twenty years later eighty percent of consumers want to enjoy the shopping mall experience. Another example is the Middle East where according to Statista one glaring adversary of the United States, Iran, even built the largest mall on the planet. Looking at the top ten largest gross leasable area malls none are in the US but most of them lease their areas to sell US products. This means that the first step is to open a mall in the Middle East, outmuscling domestic culture, e.g., bazaars, and then monopolizing these structures.
US foreign trade and security policy does not provide a public good, but ratprofit-maximizing circumstances for themselves. And the epitome of these circumstances is the good old shopping mall.
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