The Mall, Reconsidered

A trip to the local mall (mine is Roosevelt Field on Long Island) often has a purpose, but nearly always yields its share of entertainment. I couldn’t help but recall a recent trip there as I researched this month’s cover story. Experts are calling for more retail-tainment, more restaurants and more diversity in the tenant mix. While they acknowledge the difficulty in delivering on these fronts right now, I’m convinced there’s already plenty of good – and, I might add, cheap – fun to be experienced at the mall.

Last month I was tasked with picking up my daughter and her friend at the mall at 4 p.m. It was 1 o’clock: I’d already hit the gym, cleaned the kitchen and put up two loads of wash. There was no chance of me doing any additional chores, so I suggested to my husband that we visit the mall. His cheerful response: “Why would we do that? It’s not as if we have money to spend.” He was right, but I was undeterred. Twenty minutes later we were on the road.

With no real purpose, we simply visited our favorite stores and enjoyed browsing. First stop: Williams-Sonoma. There we sampled hot apple cider with mulling spices and stuffing with sausage. While I played with some kitchen gadgets and daydreamed about having an oversized kitchen outfitted with nearly everything in the store, my husband discovered samples of espresso. He was quite pleased.

Then it was on to Brookstone. After toying with numerous widgets, we managed to snare two massage chairs side by side. We shared a chorus of oohs and ahhs . . . until a sales associate began hovering nearby. Apparently, 15 minutes is too long to linger without showing any signs of buying; we decided to bail before she called security.

We stopped at Apple to play with the laptops and iPods and used our “free” call to check up on our son. We took in a few minutes of college football at Sony Style and tried to imagine how great that 50-inch plasma TV would look on a wall at home. We tried out sofas in Pottery Barn, allowed a very pushy cart vendor to slather my dry hands with moisturizer and sipped tea samples at Teavana. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day.

We met up with my daughter and her friend at the appointed hour; both had recently celebrated birthdays, and each spent plenty of “birthday money” that afternoon.

When informed about how her father and I had spent our afternoon, my daughter responded (affectionately, I think), “You guys are such losers. How come you didn’t buy anything?”

Actually, we purchased a bread mix at Williams-Sonoma and some earphones at Sony. Total amount spent: $45. A fun day at the mall: priceless.