I said "Sit Down!"

Well, apart from marketing and writing, we have another obsession - Shopping. Yes, My name is Ashanka and I'm a shopoholic. I love the shopping experience, I love being in a mall. It's such a crazy weird world. Trippy with all the music, in-store activities, perfume scent wafting across mixing with the food court aromas. Yes being in mall warms the cockles of my heart but sometimes I'm amazed that Mall designers miss out on the basics

The basic metric for any mall is footfall correct? but I think one needs to measure two other metrics to determine total success. One is time spent and the exit rate. Time spent is difficult because visitors to a mall are not Id'ed seperately but I'm sure exit rates can be measured if you have seperate entrances. So I guess going by the above points the paramount importance for any mall is to keep all the people that it attracts within the mall for as long as possible. Because, duh, the more time they spend the more they are likely to spend.

So, going by this rather obvious logic, I fail to understand why most malls have few to none seating arrangements inside the mall. Seats are vital to a mall's success methinks because shopping, as most people will agree is a tiring activity. The constant activity wears out the legs and after a point you want to quit and go home. I see this all the time, when my mom/aunts/friends shop. Everybody I know becomes impatient after a while because their legs are killing them and they'll sooner drag you out than let you try out the awesome looking dress. This is such a common occurence that I'm surprised that nobody thought of putting seating whever possible because that is what will keep people inside the mall. I'm convinced that malls are designed by men who have no idea about shopping.

Yesterday I was at Central and I spent a good two hours there and my feet were killing me. And surprise, surprise no seating whatsoever, except at the foodcourt which does not really count because you gotta make a purchase there and you can't really sit and relax. People also forget that women, the most prolific of shoppers, often shop in shoes that are less than comfortable like heels, platforms etc. Isn't is logical to make your prolific, high spending shopper comfortable?

But, there's a rub in providing seating in some kind of stores like book stores for example. If I was a store manager at a book store I wouldn't provide any seating whatsoever, simply because, seating gives a reader ample time to savour and read atleast 4-5 chapters of the book. I believe that the more time you give a person to decide on something, the more they're gonna narrow things down. Like say, somebody wanted to by 6 books but on reading a bit most likely than out they'll pick 3. I don't have logic to prove this but this I say by experience. Besides I knwo tons of people who visit bookstores on multiple occasions and finish a book piecmeal. But this logic again flies in the face of conventional wisdom because as we all know book stores are rife with seats, couches, cushions, coffee and what not!

Somebody please explain it to these guys! Please!