Insider:

I have worked in Phipps Plaza for a couple of months so doing this observation was a bit hard, but also very informing. I usually spend most of my time inside the mall so I didn’t know much of what was around the mall. I usually just use the same entrance and go in. I related this  to my observation of people not going to mall if they are unfamiliar with it. I always use the same entrance because I think it is the easiest one. Also as  time has passed, my view of the mall has time. Before I started working at the mall I would rarely go to Phipps plaza. I had gone a couple of times but I would only go to Belk. I did this because before I did see the mall as very luxurious so I thought the stores that were in it were really expensive. Now however I do almost all of my shopping at Phipps Plaza and I see it as a normal mall. I like it too because it is also less crowded then other malls. I think it is less crowded because the idea of it being expensive keeps people away.

Outsider:

My friend Vanessa Alva is currently a freshman at Mercer University. She had never been Phipps Plaza before so I took her along one day so I could see how she viewed the mall. She went through the mall pretty quickly. As soon as she entered a store she would walk out because she said it seemed like a store she would not usually visit. “The mall does seem very fancy. I always just go to Lenox Mall, the stores there seem to be more suiting for the average person. The store I would probably come back to is Belk since it seems like it is more affordable.”

 

Getting my friend’s perspective really helped me see how my perspective has change. Before I would never have shopped at Phipps Plaza but since I have become familiar with it I see it as a normal place. I use to have the same assumptions of many other people. Also while working inside I have discovered that many people that visit Phipps Plaza are not aware that Lenox Mall is right across the street and vice versa. Johnson in his short story “Scene of the Crime” mentions a lot of these assumptions. He mentions how some people only go to Phipps Plaza because it is fancier and others go to Lenox Mall because it is more affordable. The story is mainly about a mother and a daughter shopping in Phipps Plaza. The mother prefers Phipps Plaza because of how fancy it is and she is shocked at the suggestion of going to Lenox mall. When talking about Lenox mall the people referred to as “the normal people”.  Since the story was fiction not all of its content can be considered truth, but after observing the mall, one can see that the assumptions were not falsely created.

 

I honestly think that the way a place is viewed is just a matter of perspective. Once you become use to something it no longer seems out of the ordinary.