Since we’ve moved more from specialized neighbourhood stores to malls (mega or otherwise), our “needs” every so often dictate that we make the trip to the dreaded mall.  Ever since I was a kid (teenage years mostly, as before I lived in a small town with no “malls”), I had a love/hate relationship with malls.  When my friend Kip and I would venture out for a day of skateboarding or last minute Christmas present buying, we eventually ended-up at or near a mall – skateboarding near the exhaust outputs (yuck) or garbage bins (double yuck).  One day, I remember vividly still to this day, Kip and I got lost trying to find our way from inside the mall to the bus stop – every turn seemed to look the same – ahhhh help.

Now, as I have read and consulted (worked) more about sustainable and green living, my hatred of  malls has increased exponentially.  The buildings illustrate poor air circulation, no daylighting, high VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) smells, non-local, high waste, consumerism, low wage paying, vehicle-centric places.  So, why do we still go?  It’s those dame “needs”…..

This time it was for the new digital cameras for our two girls.  Not something that I wanted to buy used (tried that, didn’t work well), not likely to find at a thrift shop, or any other more socially conscious way.  Does buying it a small store make any more difference than a bigger one – maybe I guess if the store has more ethical treatment of employees and relationships with suppliers and customers.  So maybe it is just that it is so dame easy to go to the big store….  Well, let me tell you, today was not easy.  We bused to the store – which is fairly easy, IF you know the city, the bus route, you have the correct change, etc… (see my previous blog about love/hate with infrastructure) – Oh, and let me tell you, I could have written a whole blog on the story we overheard on the bus (wow! Pure Hollywood Gold).  We then had to find the department that sold cameras in the mega store – not always easy.   Then choose the best matched camera for our budget and needs from the displayed cameras.  And then finally find a salesclerk to help us – only to find out that they are sold out of the camera, but another of their stores, which happened to be across the street had 10.  That other store, which we walked too, was also sold out of the cameras….. AHHHHHHH.  So, where was that “It just so easy” comment now?

Anyway, we escaped the “mall” a little more frustrated than when we went in, but I guess that is the price we paid.  Maybe we’ll learn one day.

On a happy note, we found a thrift store in Berkeley, California, which saved our day – plus they had the Tim Flannery “The Weather Makers” book that I had been looking for, as well as Henry David Thoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.”

God bless the Thrift stores….  (I know, I know, it is still consumerism, but I am getting closer to the not buying.)