I don’t go to the mall expecting silence, but I also don’t expect the place to sound like a combat zone. However, at 9:40 this morning, the Natick Collection (formally called the Natick Mall) sounded just like that due to some mysterious drilling. I couldn’t find the location of the drilling, but then I bet there were people driving around who couldn’t find the location of the mall. What is this “collection” business? Things used to be simple. I’d drive to the Natick Mall, park my car in the parking lot, walk into the mall, make my purchase and leave. Now I drive to the Natick Collection, park in the parking garage, follow the signs to the Collection, and wonder whether I’ll enter at the Sears end or the Macy one. Then, when I leave, I hope and pray I can locate my car. Maybe if I went to the Collection more often, it would become more simple.
But since I am simplifying by not buying anything, I pretty much boycott malls (I mean Collections). However, my IPhone was limping along, and where is the closest Apple Store? Yup in the Collection (got it right this time). I simply made a PT appointment for the phone on the internet, and I was right on time at 10 this morning. Diagnosis: faulty on/off switch. PT plan: phone replacement. So in ten minutes I walked out of the Mall, I mean Collection, with a new phone. So simple.
I know I didn’t help the economy today, but it’s not all my fault. The noise pollution itself was enough to catapult me out of that combat zone. And then there was all that time that it took to maneuver about the collection zone just to complete my one transaction: I felt like I had been robbed of one of my most precious commodities--time. Even the Apple Store didn’t get a dime from me. Of course there’s nothing the merchants can do to my simple commitment not to buy anything. It’s not in their marking mentality even to consider the possibility that I don’t need anything.
I may not be helping the economy, but being a green buyer, I am helping the planet. On my walk this afternoon I took pictures of all the green. It was free.
But since I am simplifying by not buying anything, I pretty much boycott malls (I mean Collections). However, my IPhone was limping along, and where is the closest Apple Store? Yup in the Collection (got it right this time). I simply made a PT appointment for the phone on the internet, and I was right on time at 10 this morning. Diagnosis: faulty on/off switch. PT plan: phone replacement. So in ten minutes I walked out of the Mall, I mean Collection, with a new phone. So simple.
I know I didn’t help the economy today, but it’s not all my fault. The noise pollution itself was enough to catapult me out of that combat zone. And then there was all that time that it took to maneuver about the collection zone just to complete my one transaction: I felt like I had been robbed of one of my most precious commodities--time. Even the Apple Store didn’t get a dime from me. Of course there’s nothing the merchants can do to my simple commitment not to buy anything. It’s not in their marking mentality even to consider the possibility that I don’t need anything.
I may not be helping the economy, but being a green buyer, I am helping the planet. On my walk this afternoon I took pictures of all the green. It was free.