Rabu, 07 Oktober 2015

Essay : Mall as an Identity for Indonesian Modern Society





In this modern era, each person definitely had ever gone to shopping mall, especially for those who lived in a big city. Most people also choose mall as a place to spend their leisure time, hence, mall can be said as an identity of modern society. Shopping mall has become popular since 18th century in England. According to wikipedia.com, “the first shopping mall in the England is The Oxford Covered Market in Oxford which is opened in 1774 and still runs today.[1] The first shopping mall in Indonesia was located in Jakarta which is called Sarinah in 1962. [2]

Nowadays, we can see many shopping malls were built. For instance, in Surabaya we can see there are more than 5 malls were built, such as Grand City, East Coast Mall, Galaxy Mall, Tunjungan Plaza, Lenmarc, Darmo Trade Center, and many more shopping places there. Shopping mall is one of the places that you can buy anything such as clothes, food, etc and get many entertainments there such as playing game, watching movie in cinema, and so on. According to wikipedia.com, “Shopping mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version of the traditional marketplace.”[3]
In the past, many Indonesia people get their entertainment by going to the park, beach and so on. Then, when they need to buy clothes, foods, and many more they will go to the small shops in the street or maybe go to the near market. However, nowadays every people prefer to choose shopping mall than the market or the small shops. They have some reasons for it. They think that shop in shopping mall is more efficient and comfortable. Shopping mall gives many facilities such as air conditioner, a large parking lot and also complete things. According to Brittany Tedesco Journal, “It’s clear that malls provide many benefits. They allow for more convenience and make the shopping experience easy. In addition, people often go to the mall to socialize and “sometimes just for the fun of it”. Malls provide a great amount of entertainment and fun.”[4]
In modern society, every one want to be as efficient as possible and they don’t want to find things hardly. If they go to the market maybe they can only find, food and clothes they can’t get some entertainment. In addition if they go to small shop they maybe can’t find all of the thing that they need. So that, many modern people prefer to go to Shopping Mall than go to market or some small shops.
Shopping mall is not only the place for adult people to buy something but also the place for teenagers who want to hang out with their friends. Then, it is also become the place for a couple who want to date. They choose shopping mall as the place for hang out or date because shopping mall is more comfortable. Then, they also can talk long times in a cafe by buying one cup of coffee or anything else.
From those conditions, we can see that many modern societies always go to the shopping mall. Shopping mall becomes one of the places that must be visited. Every modern society must be ever visited shopping mall. One of the way to be regarded as a modern society is visit shopping mall. According to Arifian blog, “People think that one of the requirements for country to be regarded as developed country; they have to build many shopping malls. It is because the existence of shopping mall in one country shows that the local government had many fund to make public facility and to modernize country.”[5] Therefore, I can say that shopping mall has become an identity for Indonesian modern society.


[1] Shopping Mall. Retrieved on July, 2, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall
[2] Mall Heaven, by Patung, Business & Economy, 30 November 2006
[3] Shopping Mall. Retrieved on July, 2, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall
[4] Tedesco, Brittany. Mall and The Emphasis on Identity. Retrieved on July, 2, 2012, from http://btedescoams200.blogspot.com/2010/11/malls-and-emphasis-on-identity.html
[5] Arifian. Mall sebagai Identitas Masyarakat Modern. Retrieved on July, 3, 2012, from http://gasukagausahliat.blogspot.com/2011/01/mall-sebagai-identitas-masyarakat.html

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