Little shops like the one in the photo Jady sent me below have a romantic feel to them don’t they?  It makes me smile to see all the colors, fresh (probably local) products and down to earth owners that live in the community and care about their business and customers.  There’s also a beauty in the tradition of closing at noon/1pm and reopening again at 4pm after a hearty lunch and well deserved afternoon nap.  The mom & pop shop has long been a part of Italian life and culture.  When I was a child, I also remember the mobile fish salesman and other mobile salesman that would drive from town to town and shout out what they had as they slowly drove to the main piazza.  People would walk out of their homes to buy products that were fresh from the docks or orchards and it was delicious.

On my last visit to Calabria this past April, I was sad to see that a large shopping mall had opened between Lamezia Terme and Catanzaro called “Centro Commerciale Due Mari” and I noticed that many of the small mom & pop shops in the towns near my grandparents’ home had closed.  As always there are pros and cons.  The Centro Commerciale has created jobs and it’s slightly cheaper to buy groceries at the mega grocery store they have there but in my opinion, they have lost so much more!  When you lose the mom & pop shops you also lose people and when there are no shops and no people, you lose “la passeggiata”… which as many of you know is the “walk” usually down the main strip to people watch and see friends and eat a gelato.  So go to your shopping mall and walk around in circles on several levels…  that’s just as fun right? It seems to me that here in the US we are trending away from shopping malls and back towards small and local.  I hope that’s true and if it is, I couldn’t be happier. At the end of the day, we may save a few dollars at the mall or Walmart but look at what we’re giving up? DOWN WITH SHOPPING MALLS!

Photo credit: jonnybaird on flickr