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What It’s Like To Be In A Mall Right Now

The Music Is Going, But That’s About It.

There are a lot of moments where you can be deeply unsettled by the current moment, by capitalism and its shadows, by the spectre of industrialized and or monetized death, by the cultish aspects of American denial, but for my money the best place to experience all of these feelings together is on a Saturday night in a mall during the Christmas shopping season, in the year of pandemic, where you have gone alone to see the light night showing of a horror comedy in a 250 seat movie theatre with only one other person in the room.

This was my experience last night and it was quiet and interesting and thought provoking and unnerving and potentially beautiful, though mostly not. Shopping malls have been crumbling for years, becoming emptier and emptier, more and more devoid of shoppers. Nevertheless the lights in them remain on, the music echoes through empty corridors, the stores and ads and fountains continue to run even when there is no one there for them to run for. It sort of gives the impression that shopping itself has gained sentience, that it is a life force that will continue on its own long after the people are gone.

I have visited a few malls since pandemic began. In Nyack, NY we saw a carousel in an empty mall, in front of a giant window. In Hayward, CA we sat on a bench and watched high schoolers in coordinated sneakers and masks walk past us in small groups. But last…