Opiate of the shopping masses

The Mall of America must surely be the ultimate expression of this nation's obsession with shopping: Four soaring stories of shopping fun sprawled down two gargantuan corridors. I was standing in the Rotunda, a special exhibit area and the focal point for the East Broadway shopping gallery. In front of me, Camp Snoopy's forest of fun beckoned. Below me was the mall's recent aquarium addition, UnderWater World.

I made my way to a second-level lookout over the theme park for a few moments of reflection. Spread below me were Paul Bunyan's Log Chute (an indoor flume ride!), the Ripsaw Roller Coaster, the Skyscraper Ferris Wheel (all 74 feet of it) and one of those rides that spins in every direction while bobbing up and down in a concerted effort to make its passengers queasy.

Once the shock had worn off, I went shopping. With 520 stores, the Mall of America has every kind of shop you can imagine, twice. Nordstrom, Sears, Bloomingdale's and Macy's anchor the mall at each corner, dividing it into four shopping zones.

I set off blindly, swiveling my head this way and that to take it all in. There is an athletic store where you can shoot hoops on a real goal, an all-Barbie FAO Schwartz store, a Postmark America (the Postal Service's first theme store), the Lego Imagination Center and the usual host of Victoria's Secrets and Banana Republics.