12/25/2009
I am not temperamentally a shopper. On Wednesday I made my annual trip to a Mall, visiting one belonging to Taubman Centers, a company founded by one of America’s more colorful entrepreneurs, Alfred A. Taubman, and still managed by his son.
It was a dreary experience. Partly because of the desperate signs in the store fronts offering huge discounts, and partly because of all the intrusive Spanish language notices. But there was more — something else. Then it dawned on me: absolutely no Christmas acknowledgement. The piped music was meaningless, and the intersections of the Mall corridors unadorned and unappealing.
If you only go to an environment rarely, you notice things more easily. Amazing — especially if you are trying to attract Christmas shoppers. Surely it is not unreasonable to feel if one is going through the ghastly experience of dealing with a Christmas gift list, some reminder of the pleasanter aspect of the season should be heard? Particularly if one belongs to the majority of shoppers, who also are the majority of the Nation, and whose Creed and cultural tradition was that which founded and developed America?
The Washington Times has a good story on Focus on the Family’s very promising Stand for Christmas website: Retailers judged naughty or nice on Christmas theme by Valerie Richardson Thursday December 24, 2009.
DENVER | The Gap is naughty, Target is nice, and Dick’s Sporting Goods is a little of both, according to preliminary results of Focus on the Family’s annual Stand for Christmas project, which invites shoppers to evaluate retailers based on their Christmas-friendliness. Now in its third year, the Stand for Christmas Web site asks customers to rate stores and provide online evaluations based on how readily they embrace the word "Christmas" and its themes. The scores are updated continuously on the standforchristmas.com Web site.
This is a brilliant idea, and we should have endorsed/publicized it earlier. (Purely a matter of time/resources.) This could be another way Americans could break the MSM censorship in this issue.
Next year, I hope Focus on the Family adds a Mall rating site. Technically, it would not be particularly burdensome. And while oligopolistic store chains as a practical matter limit how much choice shoppers really have, they can also choose Malls. I could just as well have gone to another equidistant one.
Ask Focus on the Family. Complain to Taubman.
Merry Christmas, from the Front. PC
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