Now that I've shopped in Asia, I have some serious generalizing to do.
The people and merchandise behind the Asian shopping mall setup are like a team of ants trying to fill out a warehouse. It requires a lot of coordination and many, many bodies. Bangkok had far and away the biggest malls I have ever seen in my life but the merchandise was tiny! The Asian shopping ideal seems to be as much distraction and chaos as possible buying even a replacement charger for one's mobile phone or 50 cents' worth of potato chips (in a miniature bag, of course).
It's different in America. In America, the shopping ideal is finding a metaphorical long-lost treasure on a metaphorical island in uncharted waters known only to the metaphorical natives. American shoppers flock to "hidden locations" like Shake Shack (the best burger on Manhattan, a tiny little shack staffed by four people in the middle of a park with a line literally hours long). But when the American shopper gets to that tiny little coffee shoppe on the beach, she wants a whole goddamn liter of coffee.
I did some shopping of my own today, which, as is customary here in Sweden, meant going to IKEA. So I finally have a cutting board! (the same one the other 10 million residents of Sweden have) I celebrated by cutting the heck out of some garlic and chile anaheim en route to spaghetti aglio, olio, and peperoncino. Meeting some friends to go hiking at 8:45 tomorrow morning so it'll be an early night!
Love,
D
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