Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Mall navigation


...Except that I think malls may have less longevity than GPS. I dunno, but it just seems like malls are moving out of favor. Sure, there's still an obscene number of them. But the new shopping mega-complexes being built that I've seen are a move away from the giant central mall concept and more towards a giant "marketplace" concept... that actually, to me, looks like nothing more than a glorified strip mall, but they're called "Lifestyle Centers". Whatever. I avoid them all. Actually, my idea for a "shopping center" is this: Use a GIS to match each and every business within a 1-mile radius of each address. Then mail to each address a thing that looks like a mall directory, but it's actually just a map of their neighborhood with all of the shops/businesses color-coded by category "clothing, grocery, hardware, etc.). I wouldn't be surprised if it generated a decent amount of new (and possibly lasting) commerce for local businesses. Enough new tax revenue, anyway, to justify the expense of the venture, I dare say. So any city GIS-ers out there reading this: Consider that a freebie.

2 more things though: At Disneyland one day my cousin said that I was so tall whenever we were out and about in a crowded place it'd be simple enough to just tell everybody to "Meet back at Christian". And Baldo is a pretty darn good strip. Available in the original Spanish too!

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