Reflections in a forgotten corner of the mall

Lines and light
London, ON
August 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In a tucked-away corner of a quiet shopping mall, I wander across a security door that seems to defy the emptiness of this place.

As the mall once ate the downtown shopping district, e-commerce now comes for the mall. These once-iconic centres of retail and community life now increasingly reflect the fact that most of us have simply moved on. “Going to the mall” is less a normative social thing now.

As much as I despise shopping, it saddens me somewhat. Like them or not, these places once anchored daily life for so many. And generational change doesn’t come without varying forms of loss.

Yet this particular mall is faring better than most, its owners managing to keep the empty storefronts to a minimum as they drive their brand upmarket and make plans to build condos at the edge of the parking lot. Tomorrow’s mall will look and feel increasingly like a self-constrained, transit-connected community, and this one is already starting to shift.

But for now, sneakers are still being sold, Cinnabons are still being covered with gooey icing, and kids are still having meltdowns when they don’t get their way.

And deep in the shadows, a reflective security door casts brilliant patterns on a polished marble floor, a scene unseen by scattered crowds too busy with their smartphones to look any more closely than they need to.

They’re missing the ending of one story and the beginning of the next.

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