Mall shoppping habits and preferences of retail consumers in West Texas

Slogans from the past decade such as "when the gouig gets tough - the tough go shopping" and "shop till you drop" accurately portray the typical American consumer. But where does this shopping take placed Shopping maUs accounted for over half of this country's retaU sales in 1988 at $584 biUion (Stoffel, 1988). Malls have undergone widespread changes during the past 30 years, but one thing is certain, they play an important role in the social and economic lifestyles of today.

In 1988, at the end of the 1980s buildmg boom, Stoffel wrote a New York Times article that noted the number of shoppuig centers in the U.S. had surpassed the number of secondary schools and post offices. At that time, Stoffel noted these shopping centers numbered 30,600. In 1993, the Wall Street Journal indicated the number had grown to approximately 38,000 shopping centers (Trachtenburg, 1993).

In a Gallup poll conducted for the Intemational Council for Shopping Centers (ICSC), maUs ranked behind only churches and hospitals as the most respected institutions in the country (Laing, 1992). With these statistics in mind, it is no wonder malls are just as likely to receive an icon on a city map as a school, hospital or town haU.