"But why should we think about malls? Quite simply, because Americans go to malls. We may not like the malling of America, but if we want to understand Americans, we have to look for them where they are, not where we think they out to be. We need to follow Americans to the mall and see what they're doing because shopping centers can reveal cultural patterns that we don't usually see. In some ways, culture is what happens when we are not paying attention. When we are fully conscious of our choices, they are likely to express our individual values and preferences, but when we're going about our daily business with little thought about what we're doing, we act according to the habits of our hearts, and those habits are shaped as much by culture as by character." (xii)

(Farrell, James J. One Nation Under Goods: Malls and the Seductions of American Shopping. Washington: Smithsonian Books, 2003. Print.)