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| Under the glass menagerie London, ON May 2025 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
This onetime Mecca of conspicuous consumption was a beacon for the community that both surrounded and sustained it, a commercial analog for the town squares where we once gathered and the main street and downtown strips where we once transacted.
Today, this is all that remains. The gap-toothed first floor is home to a few scattered stores, the rest already shuttered up or converted into community rooms and city-run offices. The second floor is all office space, its sterile concourse overrun by mall walkers who ignore the single uniformed woman pushing a mop in endless counter-clockwise trips around the polished mezzanine.
The shoppers have largely disappeared, now buying from apps and touchscreens and waiting for the results to show up at their door. The sleek monstrosities still cast shadows over the communities they once served, the sounds of the few stragglers who remain still echoing through their glass-framed, marble-fronted halls.
I guess conspicuous consumption just isn’t as conspicuous anymore. I guess nothing lasts forever.
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Related:
Where we follow a man who shops, November 2024
Deli meat under glass, January 2024
After the shoppers have gone, August 2023
Mezzanine mall scene, July 2023
Another transient shopping experience, June 2022
Bust the glass ceiling, December 2010
Breaking through the glass ceiling, April 2009
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