The Mall

When one thinks of going to the mall, they don’t generally think of looking at the building or the layout. Granted you go look at the map of the mall to see where the store you want to go to is, but you don’t really notice where the stairs, escalators and doorways are in relation to that store. The Mall of Georgia is a rather large mall that has not only the stores in the main building, but also some outdoor stores around a plaza with a fountain. I did not have quite the success taking pictures that other people did, because I went on a Saturday and the Segway security guards were out in full force, but I got a few shots.

From just my observations I noticed quite a bit more than I usually do when I go to the mall. Of course, as with most malls, the larger, anchor stores are located at the ends or cross-section ends of the mall. Some of the smaller anchor stores like Old Navy, Pottery Barn and Gap are at midpoints between the larger stores or on corners at the cross-sections. Dick’s Sporting Goods is an oddity as it is not your typical anchor store but is at the end of one of the cross-sections like one of the “typical” anchor stores. All the other stores are mixed in between, along the sides and in much smaller spaces. The food court is pretty much in the middle of the mall. You can sample a wide selection of tasty foods, from Chinese, to hamburgers, to cinnamon buns and pretzels. There are also food stands throughout the mall that are not confined to the food court.

You can find kiosks and carts spread throughout the mall as well. They sell everything from space-age ice cream to cell phones and sunglasses. These seem to create a second row of stores in the middle of what may normally be walking space. In some spots these carts line the railing that surrounds the cut-out in the floor on the second level. In other places, the kiosks sit in the middle of the path, between two sides of actual stores. These “stores” seem to have much more space than the smaller, non-anchor stores because the vendors have the ability to wander outside the space around their carts to “hunt” for customers. You can often see people walking briskly past these carts in an attempt to avoid being cornered by someone pedaling the latest lotion from some far-away place like France.

The stairs are at the cross-sections, just outside one of the anchor stores or leading to an exit off the side of the mall. This seemed to regulate the flow of people from one level to the next. I noticed very few elevators or escalators aside from those in the center of the mall near the food court. In the food court area is also where the only glimpse of the third floor of the mall is. This can only be reached by escalator or elevator and it is where the movie theater is. It has become somewhat common place to find a movie theater in a mall, but that was not usually where one looks to go watch a movie. You purchase your tickets on the second floor, just off one of the cross-sections and occupying the entire side of this wing is a ticket counter and an arcade. It is quite odd.

People seemed to be moving quite freely on either side of the mall, as there were two paths formed by the large open holes in the floor that allowed you to see the other level. There were signs, like the one below that encouraged people to continue moving. When people would be moving too slow or would stop in the middle of a walkway, people would walk around them. It was almost like watching cars moving on the road. The maps were located off to the side, usually by an entrance, possibly to avoid congestion in the major thoroughfares. It was interesting to observe the mall in this way, because it gave me an opportunity to notice the planning that goes into making the operation run smoothly.