Flight Simulation

 

By: Jonathan Seidel

Capitalism and theatrical airports

Airports are anything but flying. They are filled with stores. Selling all sorts of valuables. So much merchandise and expensive food. What happened to just flying.

Outside an airport is filled with taxis, suitcases and tears. Chauffeurs assisting clients with their bags and families embracing their loved ones. It is a heartfelt goodbye and away for a new chapter. The bristling of cars dropping off people leaving the city. All are headed for the same vehicle. All are searching for their flight. Passengers unloading their bags with haste hoping to make their flight. Rushing around a few screams here and there. It is a busy section coming and going. Racing to the flight. Yet within much of this stampede is an emotional moment for loved ones who hold tight for a couple extra minutes. The airport is here time to head inside.

Predictably, the airport has logistical and security measures prior to reaching the airplane. Entering the airport the passenger must find his section. His airline is huddled up somewhere with a line for unloading suitcases. The passenger waits his turn sometimes tirelessly and endlessly until he makes his way to the counter. His suitcase is weighed and his passport checked. Annoying at times but logistically relevant. Waiting on line is a bore but the airline set up ensures the boarding pass is received and suitcases are loaded onto the airplane. This is a part of the airplane process. Retrieving the necessary documents to board the plane.

Once retrieved, the passenger moves onto the security section. Lining up just as he did for his airline. Now instead he is with the rest of the passengers of all airlines. All single file ready to be checked. There is a guard who checks the boarding pass ensuring it is valid. The guard permits the passenger entry into the security section and another guard motions the passenger over to place their bags and electronics on the trolly. Instructing the passenger which things come off and which go in a bag. Laptops must be taken out and placed in a bin of their own while belt shoes and hat go in another. The passenger then walks through the security layer grabs his stuff and heads to his gate. 

Security is essential for safety on the flight. Since airborne is dangerous guards need to make sure no danger enters the plane. After security the next logical step is the airplane but it isn’t. Before ever making to the gate, the passenger is greeted by a score of stores. Duty free but also his local brands that desire his money. Stores selling watches and clothing to books and legos. A variety of types for the passenger to indulge in. The passenger has been processed by the airline and security and now is processing the curious stores. He didn’t just enter a mall. He chose the airport. He saw the airplanes, the tower and others with suitcases. Maybe they’ve all been duped. Maybe he paid for the mall experience. 

Confused, he sits down to figure out the situation. He looks around and all he sees is stores. He swears he remembers arriving at the airport. He did check in. He reaches into his pocket and takes out his passport and his boarding pass. He didn’t dream that. He sees fellow travelers purchasing items so they are there. He isn’t dreaming them up. A little lost, he looks up and sees the dashboard with the list of flights. He finds his and lets out a sigh of relief. He walks and follows the signs that lead him to his gate. He sits down awaiting for his flight but he has some time. He arrived early and the tedious longing for boarding inspires to him return to the mall-like center of the airport.

He picks up his stuff and decides to explore. He has enough time on his hands why not check it out. He retraces his steps reverting back to the store collage. He sees all his local brands. While not in a spending mood, the interest of boredom combined with familiarity enjoins his spirit. Just a little peak. This is nothing like shopping in a mall and at the same time it is the exact same thing. He is not particularly in the mood to spend but there is a deal. He knows the brand and they are offering a generous opportunity. He’s heading out why not give himself a go away present. Preparing him for journey. Imbuing a newfound sense of confidence. He checks with his local store and it was a little overpriced but it was for the journey so worth it.

He moves on and grows hungry. He sits down at the food court. All sorts of restaurants crowded in a single chamber. A single rotunda surrounded by pop-up shops that have engraved their name into a section. Some more refurbished than others. Offering overpriced meals and overpriced drinks. It’s the airport. Sit back and relax before your flight. Enjoy a cold beverage or a tasty meal. The food is more expensive but way better than anything you’ll eat or be served on the plane. Reluctantly buying the meal to satiate himself. He stands up takes a long last look around at the commodity enveloping him. Amazed at the surreal experience surrounding him. Maybe another nicknack for the ride.   

Entranced by all the materialistic agenda. All the possible purchases. The voiceover goes off. Boarding in fifteen for flight now. Shocked he checks his watch realizing he has forty minutes till his flight. He grabs his stuff and dashes back to the gate. Lining up right behind fellow passengers bags in hand. He waits his turn and hands his passport and his boarding pass to the attendant just as he has done prior. She checks it and wishes him a pleasant flight. He follows his fellow passengers down the terminal to the plane. Entering the plane he is greeted by the crew and is guided to his seat. Placing his luggage in the overhead compartments and stowing his bag underneath. He firmly takes his seat awaiting further instructions and takeoff. 

In the midst of journeying to the airplane he was stopped by the market of commodities. He is attracted to the untaxed giveaways. The local stores with branches even in the airport. The commodities follow the passenger from his home to the airport. Leaving him as he flies. A salute to his safe flight. A reminder of their eminence in the local scene. They have ownership and influence until the tarmac. The runway is the separation between material and bliss. Between commodity and nothingness. The commodity desires his participation up till he leaves the area. Once he has left they have no more power but just before he leaves. A last second decision to buy their goods. A special gift before leaving.

It is an enticing prize for the passenger. The passenger has arrived early to smoothly pass through check-in and security. The passenger is ever unsure of the length. Taking a risk coming late is anxiety ridden. Instead he comes early. He makes his way through. He has so much time. Maybe he’ll explore, walk around a little bit. He has so much time and there is so much to see. Waiting for a plane needs something to pass the time. Why not place some stores for convenience. Why not provide a pressing enhancement for the tedious traveler. To enjoy wandering from one to another. Looking closely at each item closely. To feel satisfied in the waiting hours. A time to fill and a time to be fulfilled. 

The mall-like system is familiar. There are stores that remind the passenger of his home. No matter from where he is flying. He may be boarding an airplane back home and the airport resembles his own. Some tweaks here and there. Yet the commodification is represented in its own relatability. The passenger enjoys the souvenirs and the niceties on display. He forgot to buy a gift for his wife or kids. Something for himself to feel accomplished. He knows a mall and he knows materialism. It’s a commodity and it’s purchasable. The nation nor the airport matters. An interest for the company to make money and for the passenger to aspire his own dignity. A last chance for a customer and a last chance for a purchaser. 

Buyer and seller meet in the middle of the airport maze. En route to their flight. Passengers are caught by the numerous possibilities. This is not disconnected. This a part of the process. This is the support. Though a voluntary part. Unlike the first two sections there is no obligation to entertain the stores. They are there, they may even inquire to buy but more or less they remain as a desirable. If you are bored or curious, it is available. Increased capitalist functioning. Commodities for all sorts of travelers. A commodity for everyone. The airport adds an extra rung to the ladder. Permitting stores to enter their scene. Potentially profiting from their arrangement. It may be the store’s items but the airport’s land. 

The airport provides these luxuries. They are in the airport and the seller’s interest. Luxuries are persuasive to purchase but also nice to look at. While it seems to take away from the flying experience. It seems to split the airport into a mall but the mall is just parcel of the airport experience. The mall does not encroach on airport territory but strategically placed post-security. A mall next to an airport would precede any check-in. Instead the airport turns its own corridor into a theatre. It permits commodities entry to provide a good time to the passenger. He is bored and lonely. Sitting tediously awaiting his flight. Let’s bring the buyer and seller dynamic. Synthesizing the market in an airport of all places. 

Brightening up passengers’ days. Providing that solace through commodification. Distracting the passenger through dialectical theatrics. Check over here and over there. Explore the territory. Enjoy a cold beverage while entertaining an untaxed bottle of whisky. Maybe check out the clothing line or a nice watch you’ve been eyeing for some time. Never making it to the store, the airport brings it to you. So busy on your trip, here’s a few commodities to make up for lost time. Here’s a way forward. Do it before leaving. Ready yourself for that meeting or vacation. A cure to boredom  and an antidote for insolence. A representable illustration of proper “fun”. It’s big but sufficiently compact. Everything is on the surrounding area. There is room to explore and relax. 

An airport begins as a process to the plane but is quickly interrupted by a chain of stores. A mall looming out of nowhere. A theatrical marvel right before the plane. The airport wishes its passengers to enjoy their stay and explore in their free time. Don’t worry there is something for everyone.

Centralised Shopping

By: Jonathan Seidel

The invention of malls: centralised culture and hypermarkets (Baudrillard, 67)

Malls aren’t new in idea but are in structure. Marketplaces have always been at the centre of the city. Shops with all types of resources from clothing to food. These can still be found in Europe and the Middle East. Yet the modern mall based commonly in America recreates the model but in a standardised complex. Its history and decay demonstrate an interesting development in American culture that seemingly isn’t as common in other areas of the world. 

Shopping malls colloquy date back to the Greeks but these presumably existed in other parts of the world as well. A marketplace like the Greek agora was a destination that people can exchange goods. Buy wares and enrich themselves. The Greek agora had similarities with the contemporary outdoor markets. Owners screaming out their goods and prices, a wide variety of goods as well as hole in the wall gems. The market is a place to walk through and find that good that is desired. A place everybody frequents. A place of socialisation. Built in the city centre to amass the people to a collective unit. A place of joy and competition. This theme has routinely developed. While the merchant use has declined with the nation state, the purchase of goods has not. Middle East marketplaces may hide in the city corners due to the urbanised construction but they are utilised in the primitive manner. Walking to these marketplaces to gather goods for the week even if the social apparatus is not the same as it once was given the technological advancements.    

Shopping malls was the successor to these marketplaces but only after reclaiming the mom and pop shops. Moving out west required pop up shops to act as the resource centre for the new settlers. These local stores became the mom and pop shops that exist in the neighbourhoods all over the country. Urbanisation superseded the mom and pop shops with department stores. Agriculture was replaced with manufacturing. Thus Macy’s and Sears opened in the 1860s in the metropolitan areas. These big retail stores were powerful in urban areas. Acting as the central resource in big cities even making their way into suburban and rural areas in later years. These resource heavy stores were more affordable than the mom and pop shops yet it all came down to transportation. Smaller towns kept to their own local place. There was a stronger homey environment and debt to those around as well as limited transportation that ensured the local shops remained in stock. Not so much for the urban areas that placed these manufacturing at the heart of the city. Providing jobs and new living standards. Prompting many people to follow their trend. Mom and pop shops were outdated and archaic. These manufactures were innovative and creative. 

Malls became more prevalent with the onset of the automobile industry. With many suburbanites travelling to the city, a mall could be placed on the away or in the opposite direction as long as a vehicle was available. This phenomenon reminds me of two different theatres at home. One on a main street and one on the highway. The theatre on the main street opened in 1947 and the drive in off the highway that turned into a sit down a decade later. The suburban life quickly overpowered the main street cinema. The renovation of the mall cinema is much nicer than the recently renovated theatre that was trashed until new ownership a decade ago. Suburban life quickly eclipsed the old way. A mall with all resources in one place overshadowed the old main street. A street akin to a marketplace boarded up with mom and pop shops. Street vendors had become shopping stores. Buildings to cover and house the goods instead out and about. The variance is only stylistically. These main streets though evolved over the years still harbour specific goods instead of a gigantic complex away from the village. The main street is the middle ground for all those citizens living in the surrounding area. A street of shops enclosed from the houses. 

People could walk to the main street and still do. While not necessarily as popping as a mall may be, there are and have revived shops to enjoy over the mall far away. The main street is filled with locals devoid of the department stores. A local barber may be of interest but not the clothing store. It is nested in preference and price. Cars enable people to travel. People even travel for a barber to get a good deal. Loyalty is muddled by cheaper prices. Yet it was only in the fifties that commuting became common. The malls opened the door for cars bought in the previous decades to be utilised for longer drives. The main street was an easy but the fun of car travel and the ease to a bigger cheaper market was worthwhile. Everything was in one arena. Malls skyrocketed in the post-war era with 4500 malls by 1960. Malls operated as social scenes. Becoming centres to shop and walk around. Enjoying the air conditioned complex with many stores to choose from. Acting as an attractive hub for those who wished to spend their day shopping or walking around. It was away from the noise of the streets and the outdoor heat or cold. A tempered area of joy and fun. Everything at the fingertips.

Larger hypermarket stores began opening their own branches in suburban areas. With commuting as a non-issue, people would make their way to the large department stores. Malls could still house mom and pop shops under more enjoyable circumstances. It was more the atmosphere than the stores themselves. Hypermarket stores sold more than one item. Walmart and Kmart focused on delivering a range of goods at a considerably lower price. For smaller towns it became the centre to buy everything instead of the pricey mom and pop shops. In suburban areas the same can be seen as well. It wasn’t a big deal to spend a little more time to arrive at a department store that had everything in one place. Unlike the mall, only one store needed to be visited. Unlike earlier department stores, these hypermarkets supplied everything. It was a single place to get everything one needed. With internet and e-commerce following shortly thereafter malls began to die. What keeps them kicking is their social enterprise. Some hypermarkets are affixed to malls like Target and Costco. While Walmart has always wished to remain distant from one, others have differed on their approach, though in many regards the wholesale store is much larger than the mall construction. 

Walmart brilliantly expanded to the e-commerce business to stay alive but it also seems people enjoy pick-up and shopping in the building. To have multiple options as a top retailer is superbly beneficial. Walmart does not provide the social cohesion that malls do but that doesn’t matter nor does it provide the quality that its competitors may. Yet the price diversity and ease of its usage is promising to consumers. Some people may enjoy the in-person shopping. Some may cling to the classic model but online is the dominant force especially as gas prices soar. Abercrombie & Fitch, and Victoria Secret do not supply the necessary diversity quality and pricing for the new online age. Macy’s is falling short as well as the end of Toys R Us and Sears. The large department stores like the mall shops are no match for the hypermarkets. Amazon and Walmart have benefited from e-commerce and diversity of brand. Kroger and Costco though unique as the former is a supermarket and Costco a warehouse both adapted to the new age. Beyond the e-commerce the shopping assistance in Kroger and the high quality surplus are key for consumers to travel to them. People don’t need socialisation they are just looking to purchase good quality for a good price. 

Malls have resurfaced in the recent years but this may be solely a temporary response. Condemned in apartments during the pandemic lockdowns ushered in a need to get out and a need to socialise. People ordered persistently online but such a habit grew old and people wished to explore once again. It has only been a year or so. The emotional reaction need only to revert back to the norm. The resurgence of the malls will eventually lead back to its downfall. Malls may never entirely close. People like the walk as well as the personal acquisition. Yet the obsession in suburbia may only last a little while longer. Without a social shift malls will crumble in their wake. The ease of consumerism has overtaken the social element. Hypermarkets are gathering places of purchasing. Not a place of wandering like a mall. A place that one moves from store to store. The mall is attached by stores but acts in its own independence. An enclosed main street away from the local housing. Yet the seeming anti-social constituency need no malls to act as marketplaces. People are content with purchasing goods online. The allure of social buying has become foreign in America.

This is not the scene abroad. More metropolitan areas have department stores and hypermarkets. Name brands highlight the main areas where mom and pop shops used to prevail. Yet there are more social markets. A respect to the ancients in their primitive classy exchange of goods. Urban areas contain open-air markets and suburbia hosts mom and pop shops. While urbanisation and technology aided conglomerates to expand their businesses across the world, some countries have retained their cultural hub. McDonalds and Starbucks may have locations everywhere but the local models retain their breath of air. Some of the western countries though held onto to the past have also embraced the present. Walmart failed in the EU but England has Asda, France has Carrefour and Germany has Kaufland. The onslaught of the EU does provide international hypermarkets like Tesco to reside in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hypermarkets have grown across in the Balkans as well. It is a phenomenon of growing economy and centralisation of a product. The hypermarkets themselves are the old fashioned malls. Instead of an arena with stores on the side, the gigantic store houses all these items. It is all under one umbrella easy and simple. 

Some countries like the Netherlands and Israel have held to their local shops. There are retail chains but not as frequent. Dutch are cyclists and Israeli cars are expensive so it is easier to attend the local around the corner. Though modern stores do dominate the Netherlands. On the other hand Mexico and the Philippines demonstrate a more traditional style. It is cultural and at the same time economic. As modern retailers spread their wings internationally there isn’t much that traditional stores can do to keep up. Just to hope they can continue to compete. While it is important for the smaller retailers to adapt to the new age there is also a hope for a social change. For countries that rely on these local branches it is the structure of the culture. Isreal being a perfect example of this. The lack of hypermarkets allows locals to continue their work and the prestige of their classical markets overhauls the new well endowed malls. With high gas and car prices people rather walk a few minutes to the local electronic store or supermarket instead of travelling. There are bigger stores but transportation is a requirement. For Israeli traditional stores their luck is due to convenience. 

Mom and pop shops only need to get customers too frequent to habituate them. It is a difficulty but traditional stores are all about friendliness and assistance. It isn’t about the depth of supplies but the owner. The subject instead of the object. The obsession with mom and pop shops is helping out a friend. Most would rather the cheap brands absent knowledge of the local brand. It is the care to the traditional store down the block that rectifies a communal connection. Mom and pop shops can help themselves by advancing their technology but many of these owners are in their elder years. Yet even the younger ones hold to the honourable connection. The local mechanic or appliance guy. It is the consistency, seeing them outside the store. An entrepreneurial feat. Yet beyond is about social cohesion. The market in suburbia is absent but the main street makes up for it. A street with all the resources diversified by store. More expensive than a big retailer but with more friendliness and more concern. Hypermarkets have centralised life and resources. People could still socialise at Walmart as they would at the community centre. Yet there is a stronger communal hub to the diversification and isolation of goods to various individuals. To purchase goods in the homeland instead of travelling to the outskirts for goods. 

Cars highways and parking lots lead the public astray from their local goods. They amass in a deserted field to purchase. Instead of trotting down Main Street seeing all your friends and heading to the locals goods. Staying in town and recognising the good that is around. The capitalist individualistic culture seeks to isolate socialisation. E-commerce denies leaving the house to attain goods. Where ancient markets were places of gathering to socialise and purchase, the modern Main Street has become a ghost town. There is business but it is nowhere near the prestige of the olden days. The mall was a circus of cultural inclusivity. The repurposed public square. There is a certain lacking in this age since Walmart nor Amazon provides this. Markets were never just about the goods. They were about the social fire. Malls added elements to jog interest but it was always about collectivism. Economics may be the rationale but it is accompanied by a youthful sneer. Looking at the relic as an archaic way of life. Though millennials look at their parents on main street as aliens. Today’s socialising is virtual. Watching elderly men sitting on a park bench by their favourite coffee bar playing backgammon is a blast from a bygone era. The excitement is online or elsewhere. Taking the car to go far away or just staying inside on the virtual landscape. 

Malls may be a hassle to get to but the Main Street is just around the corner from home. Spend a date walking down the street. Check out the local barber. Admire the extent of the town. This was once the gathering spot of the township. A bygone past that must be revived. The elderly need not be the sole collectors of this time. The virtual is parcel of human experience but it lacks the interpersonal. Get off Facebook and go for a walk. Suburbia has expanded and the Main Street may be a little further but don’t fret. Use those legs and check it out. At times it looks a little beaten, a little broken but it can be revived. Only by those who care. Hypermarkets and larger retailers will remain but suburbia can be the first to rekindle the flame of the old Main Street. The centre of township and communication. To actually know the people in the neighbourhood and befriend them. The local street is the foundation of the town and its light, the younger generation must stop running away either fleeing the city or locked up in the bedroom. The mall is a daze and can withstand, yet it is outside of town. It is away from the community. Revitalising the connection to community is to reverse the modernist heritage. To care for the collective and rely on the neighbourhood. For Main Street to renew its place as the core of the community.

Malls acted as that community away from town. A place of paradise in a foreign fantasy. Yet their distance has destroyed them. A generation unforgiving and unconcerned with their downfall. Their interest is withheld. Yet the main street is only a few blocks away. Stepping outside, going for a run or hanging with a friend. All possibilities to enjoy the local atmosphere. The area may need to be revamped but it can. Instead of moving away to the city or moving elsewhere try to rebuild the area. Befriend those in the neighbourhood and reclaim the communal aura. No need to travel, it is right around the corner.