Expert Adds Shopping Deprivation to List of Post-Quake Woes

Shopping in the San Fernando Valley, which a wag once suggested should be renamed “Twenty-Nine Malls,” hasn’t been the same since the Jan. 17 earthquake. Out of commission are the Northridge Fashion Center and Sherman Oaks Fashion Square and department stores at Topanga Plaza and several other malls.

Charles A. Bearchell, a retired marketing professor at Cal State Northridge and author of “Retailing: A Professional Approach” and “The San Fernando Valley Then and Now,” tells Times staff writer Ann W. O’Neill that malls can serve a valuable role in the community’s social sense of well-being, as well as provide an economic barometer. Since the quake, Bearchell has noticed a new Valley phenomenon, which he calls shopping deprivation.

Question: Shopping deprivation, what is that? Are we going through mall withdrawal?

Answer: Shopping deprivation is a disruption of one’s normal shopping behavior through lack of availability of previously shopped centers.

Picture this: You have been living in the Valley for many years, and as part of your regular behavior you have been going once, perhaps more times, per week to the shopping center to check on clothes in general, or perhaps to react to some special ad from your favorite department store or specialty shop. This is a part of your life.

Bang! The earthquake strikes. Your home and the ground on which you stand are shaken vigorously, and many of your personal and social contacts are broken with telephones out of order, utilities gone and normal supply lines cut off. For folks in the Valley this meant a sudden deprivation of shopping opportunities at all of the major shopping centers and indeed in many of the supermarkets as well. During the ensuing days and weeks you are busy picking up the pieces, dealing with inspectors, adjusters, insurance agents and contractors to return to normal. When you want to get out of the house and simply browse in the local mall, you can’t do it.

But look--the newspapers are full of their ads. There are sales you cannot attend, bargains you can’t get unless you drive far away from your normal shopping locations. If this isn’t a clear-cut example of shopping deprivation, I don’t know what is.

Q: How did you come up with the notion that such a phenomenon exists in the post-quake Valley?

A: It is based on my own experience. Out of curiosity, we drove over to the Topanga mall when Nordstrom opened a few weeks ago. That a large number of people were waiting to get into a shopping center was fascinating to me.

Q: So, there must be symptoms of shopping deprivation. What should we expect to feel?

A: A desire to get out of the house. A wish to see what is new. A desire to follow up on the ideas which persisted, in the form of newspaper ads, but had no physical presence. One of the problems which people face is the continuing flow of information on sales which may very well be attractive but can’t be reached through one’s local contacts. If everybody else can go to the store, and the store feels it’s worthwhile advertising, I am going to feel deprived in not being able to do what I have done before.

Q: Is there some basic, primordial need that shopping fulfills? Some vestige from our specie’s days as hunter-gatherers?

A: I would not associate it with hunter-gatherers, but rather label it as an artifact of man’s social instincts. It affords people the chance to move from their homes out to crowds and meet people, see people, watch people, talk to people. It makes us feel less isolated. Traditionally, shopping was a social event, as well as an economic event where people just went to acquire something. They also often went to meet other people and exchange ideas. This goes way back. It still happens now. Many of us will go to a certain store and at least socialize a little with some clerk with whom we’ve become familiar.

Q: So people must be feeling pretty isolated by now. Does this make us cranky, give us ulcers, take years off our lives?

A: Relatively speaking, compared to our status before the earthquake--yes. Obviously, we have many problems in our lives which probably far transcend the simple unavailability of our friendly department store. But in terms of previous behavior, we’re blocked from doing what we would like to do. It is probably going to be a transitory phase for most of us and as things move back to “natural” that deprivation will gradually disappear. But as you suggested, a certain amount of crankiness or frustration will undoubtedly continue until our friendly shopping centers are back on line.

Q: Meanwhile, I’m certainly saving lots of money.

A: Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. Unfortunately the savings there is taken up by expenses of taking down chimneys and replacing broken glassware.

Q: Are there different degrees of shoppers, say, hard-core shopping addicts versus casual recreational shoppers?

A: On its very basic level, the economic aspect of shopping focuses on the satisfaction of a given need through the expense in both time and dollars of searching for that particular product which meets our needs best. Beyond that point, however, there are many people who will emphasize social contact with the seller of the goods they inspect and indeed build up personal friendships with merchants whom they frequent often.

Q: Have you noticed the ads for the Beverly Center, inviting us to go over the hill to shop till we drop?

A: I have not been there, but I am sure some people have. The outlying shopping centers are doing their best to change people’s shopping habits and patterns. If the Glendale Galleria can get people to come there one or two times, they may be locked into shopping there regularly.

Q: Omigod, could this mean the end of the Valley Girl mall culture?

A: I doubt it. The growth of the “mall culture” is an artifact of the nature of shopping behavior and economics of people who live in spread-out communities without clearly defined lines of public transportation and with a relatively high level of affluence which the developers of malls tap through careful placement of shopping centers filled with careful assortments of general and specialized merchandise. The Valley is a situation where people use their own cars more and are able to go shopping at the drop of a hat. I see them shopping, and they’re to go out at all times of the day and night. The advantage of taking your own car means you can pile more goods into it on the way home.

Q: Sounds like it’s going to get pretty competitive out there in Retail Land.

A: It always has been. There always are going to be winners and losers. The retail business is not a static operation. There is a give and take among retailers with a ruthless law of consumer demand which guarantees no one, no seller, a continuing place in history. Witness the demise and radical changes in department store chain ownership in recent years.

Q: At some point, will we experience some huge, communal shopping spree to make up for lost mall crawling?

A: It’s hard to say whether a developing forced economic measure will continue or whether people will go on splurges or sprees. We just don’t know. It remains to be seen from Valley shopping center profit-and-loss statements from the next year or two.

Q: Will the quake permanently change our shopping habits?

A: I think we will see a gradual change in shopping habits, with the technological developments of the computer-television interactive video and the widespread availability of credit data, which make possible long-distance purchases and sales with high levels of security for both customer and seller.

The continual competition will lead to development of new retail sales methods, more home shopping and computer-cable relationships. Valley businesses will focus more on specialized segments of population, or narrow segments of people to more fully meet the needs of those people, as well as take advantage of technological advances. We’re going to see some incredible changes. That’s entirely aside from the quake.