consumers: on browsing

By extending the period of "just looking," the imaginative prelude to buying, the mall encourages "cognitive acquisition" as shoppers mentally acquire commodities by familiarizing themselves with a commodity's actual and imagined qualities. Mentally "trying on" products teaches shoppers not only what they want and what they can buy, but, more importantly, what they don't have, and what they therefore need. Armed with this knowledge, shoppers not only realize what they are but also imagine what they might become. Identity is momentarily stabilized even while the image of a future identity begins to take shape, but the endless variation of objects means that satisfaction always remains just out of reach.

- Margaret Crawford, "The World in a Shopping Mall," 13, Variations on a Theme Park