"There's a lady who's sure that all that glitters is gold And she's buying a stairway to heaven. When she gets there she knows if the shops they're all closed With one word she can get what she came for. Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven." From "Stairway To Heaven", by Led Zeppelin Shopping centers did not exist by chance. They are not the result of wise planners who decided that suburban people, lacking social life and stimulation, needed somewhere to go (Bombeck, 1985). The mall was originally conceived as a community center where people converged for shopping, cultural activities, and social interaction (Gruen & Smith, 2005). It is safe to say that the mall has met and exceeded initial expectations. Unfortunately, in today's consumer culture, the mall is the center of the universe and this has shaped consumers in a negative way. In contrast to the original concept of providing the consumer with greater choice, the mall actually limits the suburban shopper's choices. . The consumer is forced to go to the shopping center to satisfy their shopping needs, but, once inside, they are also made to feel guilty if they do not make any purchases. The mall promotes materialism and superficiality, a sense of acquired self-worth and artificial happiness. The lack of housing and the increase in mobility (by car) have allowed families to move away from the city and to the suburbs. These areas were designed to be self-contained, pre-packaged communities with schools, parks, homes, etc. in close proximity to each other. Not far from city jobs, the suburbs represented the ideal safe, enclosed realm for raising families. The only problem was the fact that most of the stores were downtown and too far for mothers (who did most of the shopping) to drive... middle of paper... eh, supports this revenue cycle of money, spend money and buy happiness. Overall, shopping malls promote a sense of superficiality, the need to acquire goods for social acceptance, and an emphasis on artificial happiness. Although they began with innocent intentions, the sinister effects of changing social values ​​have left us in a dangerous situation. Our superficial "needs" for consumer goods have weakened society and compromised our standing as a united community. Works Cited Gruen, V. and Smith, L. (2005), Shopping Towns, U.S.A.: The Planning of Shopping Centers. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. May, Elaine Tyler. Homecoming: American Families in the Cold War Era. Basic Books, 2008.Miller, Daniel. Capitalism: an ethnographic approach. Berg, Oxford. 1997.Miller, Daniel. A theory of shopping. Polity Press, Oxford, 1998.