NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... watch hours of TV after school, and adults watch after work. They want to catch their favorite program or movie, and when they know that they will not be able to, they set the VCR to record it so they can watch it later. Many people find time to every day to watch TV, no matter how busy their schedules are. Although TV may become unhealthy if too much time is spent watching it, it does provide a means for relaxation. People just need to be careful about how much time they spend relaxing.
For most people, there is a lot of time spent watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the net, but there are many others who cannot find time for these activities. Many people have schedules that are too busy to let them find time for themselves. Most of the day is spent working or going to school and the rest if the day is spent running errands. People in America today are working harder than ever. They are leaving their selves very little time for rest and relaxation. Years ago, a forty-hour workweek was unheard of.
Today working forty hours in a week is minimal. Many people work twelve to sixteen hour days, five or six days a week. This leaves very little time to do anything else. When these people are not working, they are doing other things like going shopping or handling their finances.
Working like this, leaving no time for rest can be rewarding in some cases, but most of the time it is not. As we have seen, most of Americans prefer to spend their leisure time at home. However, the situation was different some 20 years ago. Americans no longer rank shopping as a fun pastime, as they did in the 80 s. However, yet for all its popularity, the shopping mania provokes considerable disease: many Americans worry about their preoccupation with getting and spending.
They fear we are losing touch with more worthwhile values and ways of living. However, the discomfort rarely goes much further than that; it never coheres into a persuasive, well-articulated critique of consumerism. By contrast, in the 1960 s and early ' 70 s, a far-reaching critique of consumer culture was a part of our political discourse. As recent research markedly demonstrates, consumers now attempt to limit the time they spend shopping. Time-pressed by family and work, they spend less time cruising the mall in search of the perfect item, but rather look to get what they need as quickly as possible. This trend has been labeled precision shopping.
The situation with shopping is different in Hong Kong. People enjoy shopping there more than spending time at home. The evidence is that the average age of people who spend their leisure time shopping the mall is higher of that of the United States. Besides, people in Hong Kong prefer shopping together with friends. An all-American invention, the shopping center has today revolutionized the global face of retail and entertainment, having the same impact on the worlds cities that another American invention the skyscraper has. Hong Kong, where Mountain Plaza mall is extremely popular, is the vivid example.
Over the past couple decades, spending time in the mall has become a national pastime, not just for teenagers, but people of all ages. They come to enjoy the all-weather; one-stop shopping, dining and entertainment experience that only a mall can deliver. A major icon of a past retail generation, the American department store, has only survived as a part, an appendage, of a mall. There is little doubt that Hong Kong itself is now prepared to follow this trend, as a tidal wave of new mall openings has overtaken Far East and shows no signs of abating. In Hong Kong over the past decade, there have been more than a few developments, which have been touted as shopping malls but have fallen far short in many regards, because of scale, layout, facilities and other factors.
However, it has not been until the past few years when real mall Mountain Plaza has opened in the city. Mountain Plaza has brought already a new standard to Hong Kong residents and even Western tourists and lays the ground for more of the same in the future. Part II Mountain Plaza is certainly one of the most striking buildings in Hong Kong, a structure that draws admiration day or night and, in this case, actually looks like the idealized architectural drawings that preceded construction. The malls American feel primarily comes from the fact that it features more than hundred of stand-alone shops, cafes and restaurants, plus a huge number of department stores. Mountain Plaza mall of Hong Kong is probably one of the best malls in Asia. It offers many conveniences to its visitors.
Shopping malls in Hong Kong are very popular. People come there with their friends to spend time shopping together. The situation with shopping is almost the same as in the United States; however, there are some differences between American and Asian buyers. Mall shoppers are different in Hong Kong and U. S. An average mall visitor in the United States is between 15 and 25 years old, while in Hong Kong the average shopper is aged 22 - 32.
This is due to several factors. First, in the United States older people prefer to buy cheaper goods (usually in malls everything is expensive if to compare with stores such as K-Mart, Wal-Mart, and Target). Older people spend more time at their work and prefer to spend their leisure time at home, while people who live in Hong Kong like to spend their spare time somewhere in the town. Shopping is one of the most beloved ways of spending spare time for a citizen of Hong Kong, because according to statistics one person is the visits the mall twice a week.
Why does it happen so? The answer is quite easy mall in Hong Kong is a very attractive place. First, many people are around and the Mountain Plaza mall is situated in the beautiful place near the harbor and in convenient location. Second, Mountain Plaza mall offers a wide variety of services.
There are many stores in Mountain Plaza, where people can find almost everything they wish the single problem is high prices. Many restaurants and fast food are located in Mountain Plaza mall, besides it has also hotel. Third, Mountain Plaza mall has a stable positive image, which also attracts many customers there. Simply speaking, Mountain Plaza is the center of leisure life in Hong Kong.
Well, in Hong Kong shopping is just as popular as in the United States or in any other western country. Shopping in Hong Kong is not the process of buying items that are badly needed, from one hand it is a whole excursion with various adventures, just as it is in the Unites States, where mall is the best place where teens hang out. From another hand, only in mall it is possible to buy designer, top-quality clothes and accessories. In the United States, for instance, malls are also popular due to the quality of products sold in them. It is prestigious to buy something in the mall rather then in convenience store. Shopping gives a lot of pleasure to citizens of Hong Kong, while western people view shopping in a little different way.
This is mainly due to cultural differences. For instance, Far East people (in general) like to buy expensive closing from famous designers. In contrast, Americans prefer to buy closing that is convenient and cheap. Americans do not care too much about fashion, while fashion is very important for Far East people.
Mall is the ultimate place to find newly designed, luxury clothes. The process of looking for specific clothes is excursion (as I have already mentioned before) which brings a lot of pleasure to a person, especially if he or she has found the thing they were looking for. Therefore, malls are so popular in Hong Kong. In the United States, people in majority do not pay too much, to what they are wearing, which makes them no so exited as Far East people, while shopping. Americans would rather spend their spare time on something else. Therefore, for Western people shopping is rather need than entertainment, while for Far East people it is one of the best ways to spend leisure time.
According to the surveys conducted by two parties, Mountain Plaza is very popular among foreign tourists. Thanks to its successful location and distinct architectural look, the mall is easily noticeable. In addition, there are various promotions aimed to attract tourists to the mall. Everything is planned, so a tourist visiting Hong Kong will not have any chance to miss shopping trip to Mountain Plaza, where he or she will experience many positive feelings.
According to surveys, approximately 50 % of all visitors of the mall are tourists, but it happens during the summer. In winter, the majority of the mall customers are local citizens. As I have already mentioned before, the prices in Mountain Plaza are quite expensive, which makes the mall a good place to shop for people with quite high-income level. In general, tourists belong to this category. However, during the winter, when the mall is primarily visited by Hong Kong citizens, many promotions take place in order to encourage local citizens to spend more on shopping in Mountain Plaza.
Actually, people like Mountain Plaza a lot, because more than 99 % of all respondents have said that they enjoyed their time spent in the mall. Survey is a very powerful tool for marketing research. With the help of survey, it is possible to find what consumer behavior is. This is very vital in studying the market, because numbers obtained in the survey reflect current situation on a chosen market. Therefore, if 99 % of respondents have enjoyed their time spent in mall, it is possible to make a solution that it can be a popular place to spend time. This shows that there is a relationship between leisure time and shopping.
Since shopping is so popular and brings positive feelings to people who shop, it is easy to conclude that people would like to spend leisure time in the Mountain Plaza shopping. Undoubtedly, shopping is fun for people, because if it was not people would not spend so much time in malls. If a person has to buy something that is needed, half an hour would be enough to do it. However, people spend hours in the mall enjoying looking for something they would like to have, but would not buy it. They enjoy sharing their opinions on certain products with friends. All this shows that shopping malls bring fun to people.
As we have seen, the Mountain Plaza mall is quite a successful and profitable business. Besides, the mall has already become a center of the city, because people simply meet there after the working day to eat out, shop, and simply spend time in the company of friends. Certainly, there are another alternative ways of having leisure time in Hong Kong; however, Mountain Plaza has some advantages. First of all this mall is very secure place to be. Second, there are many things to see, which in my opinion, is the key thing that makes the mall so popular. Third, there is no need to go somewhere if a person wants to eat, or needs to make some purchase.
Simply speaking the mall has become something like a huge club with hundreds of things to do, which is certainly a positive thing. Bibliography: Davis, Douglas D. , and Charles A. Holt (1996) List Prices and Discounts: The Interrelationship Between Consumer Shopping Patterns and Profitable Marketing Strategies, Psychology and Marketing, 13 (July), 341 - 363 Belk, R. W. (1995) Collecting as Luxury Consumption: Effects on Individuals and House, Journal of Economic Psychology, 16 (3), September, pp. 477 - 490.
web Farley, J. U. and Ring, L. W. (197 O). An Empirical Test of the Howard-Sheth Model of Buyer Behavior.
J, Marketing Res. , 7, 427 - 438.
Free research essays on topics related to: hong kong, years ago, shopping malls, older people, leisure time
Research essay sample on Shopping In Hong Part 2
