# Should protests be allowed in malls? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 22, 2014, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892 "2014-12-22T06:50:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892/61 "2014-12-24T17:42:13Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Why, yes, I do. > > But I’ve managed to do so without setting foot in a mall for at least ten years, and making only the briefest, most directed visits for around twenty years before that. > > What I never do is say, “Gee, I have a bunch of money… I’m going **shopping!** ” - which makes malls about as useful to me as a Wiccan meeting house. Malls are just a bunch of stores. :shrug: Now if you resolve only to shop at small, locally owned businesses, you might get some moral capital. But if you’re just buying shit off [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) you don’t. At least malls pay taxes locally and give old people fountains to sit by. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892/62 "2014-12-24T17:53:43Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > One thing it might depend on is when historical public spaces are enclosed by property developers. In the UK new shopping malls are often built on top of existing public spaces, often retaining As at Cabot Centre I Bristol) the course of medieval streets. There had to be special legislation to extinguish these historic rights of way to keep the developers happy. We’re talking about the United States, nothing has less historical character than a shopping mall. Most are dropped down in greenfield space in the suburbs, a lot of the inner city malls which killed many of the traditional department stores with histories back to the 19th century themselves have died off in many areas. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892/63 "2014-12-24T20:13:27Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > Malls are just a bunch of stores. :shrug: Well, no, but it’s probably time to drop the hijack. 90% of the stores in most malls are “specialty” stores that can’t maintain profitability selling their niche crap without being part of a general wallet-magnet - pulling in a pool of people who buy for buying’s sake. If they couldn’t make impulse and SWB sales, they couldn’t survive. That says a great deal about the nature of malls - they are not a place to buy things, they are a place to spend money. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892/64 "2014-12-24T20:18:01Z")
So do you shop on tv shopping channels? ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892/65 "2014-12-24T20:30:42Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > [T]hey are not a place to buy things, they are a place to spend money. LOL. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-protests-be-allowed-in-malls/707892.md?page=3)