Malls and the orchestration of the shopping experience in a historical perspective

This paper discusses the founding principles and the historical development of the American mall, with a particular emphasis on the designs and writings of Victor Gruen, architect of the first mall. It does so in order to shed light upon the importance of the orchestration of shopping experiences, which traditionally has been neglected in consumer research. Our focus on the orchestration also illuminates a discussion between postmodern theorists in consumer research accused by some critics for lack of empirical foundation. The traditional suggestion is to engage in consumer ethnographies to examine the alleged postmodern reality of consumers. We, however, suggest that an ethnography of the orchestration efforts are of equal importance for an understanding of the present shopping and consumer environment. We conclude by advocating more emphasis on macro-level institutional aspects of the production-consumption interaction in interpretive consumer research.