"Old-style" shopping

To me, it's no surprise that traditional malls are facing a backlash of sorts. If it's not the trouble it takes to get to a mall that's preventing people from going to malls, it's also the increasing demand for unique services and goods from places that come from mom-and-pop-run stores. Those are the types of stores that have the freedom to make their own imprint on a consumer's experience.

I just loved this Cinncinnati story about old-style downtowns. What I especially liked was this:

"We don't do malls," declared Aurelia Rice of Fort Mitchell. "We come here and kind of make a day of it."

The "lifestyle centers" that are popping up in regions of fastest growth (California, Florida, Southwest) are a reflection of this demand for old-fashioned downtowns. I read signs in other small ways. The trendiest shops in the East Village offer what seems to be cutting edge nostalgia, the latest in consumer contradiction. They're selling icons and signs from old-fashioned stores...just take a walk through the neighborhood and check out the old being sold as the newest new.