WALK 3

Walk 3: Social Territory







The social territory I explored for walk 3 was the Westfield Culver City Mall located in Culver City, California. I chose this site because it is a place that I have visited many times growing up and I am very familiar with it. As a big sports fan and someone who has played sports for most of my life, my focus was to determine how many stores the mall had that could meet the needs and wants of sports fans like me. The many times that I have been to this mall, my only focus has been on pleasure and to purchase sports/athletic attire that I needed or wanted. I have never paid attention to exactly how many sports stores were in the mall. During this walk, I counted, observed, and photographed all of the sports/athletic stores. As I walked through the stores, I observed the layout of the merchandise, the displays, and customers that were shopping in the store. 


My General Observations:


  • The mall has three levels with 104 stores, 12 of those stores being sports/athletic stores. 


  • There were at least two of the stores on each level. The first level had seven, The second level had three, and the third level had two. It was interesting that the store, Lids, was on the second and third level.


  • The majority of the customers seemed to be between the ages of 20-30 years old. This may have been influenced by the time that I was at the mall which was 2:00 pm. 


  • I noticed that many of the displays were sports related, however, there were some that were focused more on the fashion aspect of the attire and not necessarily on a specific sport. 


  • When I entered each store, the sales associates greeted me and were very friendly. They let me know of any sales that they had. They were also dressed in sports/athletic attire. 




The map displays the three levels in the Westfield Culver City Mall. The green markers represent the stores that were not sports/athletic stores. They are not labeled because they were not significant to the focus of the walk in this social territory. I wanted to show the layout of the mall and where the sports/athletic stores were located in relation to the other stores. The sports/athletic stores are yellow and labeled so that they are the main focus of the map. 





Both Lids stores were focused on the sports aspect of the athletic gear. As a customer, I would have liked to see more displays (i.e. pictures, posters) of athletes from the teams represented in the store or fans wearing sports gear. There were opportunities for this in the display windows of the stores.














In Pro Image, I noticed that all of the jerseys were very high up which made it difficult for customers to view them. As a customer, I would have liked them to be more accessible. 







Rookie Kids displayed both the sports and fashion aspect of the attire. As a basketball fan, I liked the large picture of Jayson Tatum in the store. 










Champs had two separate sides to their store both displaying clothes and tennis shoes. I liked the words posted behind the cashier’s counter that read “ We Know Game”. This was a direct representation of their connection to the sports aspect. 










Foot Locker had a temporary location because it seemed that their permanent location was under construction. It would be located on the same level (first) but further down from the temporary location. Although it was a temporary location, I felt that there should have been more displays of sports related posters or pictures to make the store more appealing to customers. Foot Locker is usually one of the first stores I go into when I go to the mall, but the way the store was set up I would not have gone in if I was there for shopping purposes. 








The layout of the merchandise in JD made it easy for customers to shop. The clothing was on one side of the store and the tennis shoes were on the other. They sell many brands that are just specific to their store. Their focus is more on the fashion aspect of sports/athletic gear. 







Shiek is one of my favorite sports/athletic stores in this mall. They represent both fashion and sport aspect of the attire. There is a section in the store dedicated only to Jordan shoes and attire which displayed great pictures of Michael Jordan and his number 23. The layout in the store made it easy for customers to shop. 




Adidas store focused on wearing their brand as a fashion. The display represented this focus. There were opportunities/areas in the store for the sports aspect to be displayed. 





Kids Footlocker had an opportunity for more of an appealing display in the window of the store. There was only a big red sale sign which I can only assume they thought would attract parents who would be buying the clothing or shoes. 



Heads Up was a small kiosk in the middle of the mall that only sold “LA” caps and lanyards. It is convenient for customers who are only looking for these caps, which are very popular in Los Angeles. 



Comments

  1. Aaliyah M. ReyesJune 25, 2025 at 11:20 AM

    Hi, I think that it was a good idea to focus on a demographic that you have a personal connection with. As someone who isn't really interested in sports, whenever I go to the mall, I don't pay attention to these kinds of stores but your post highlighted that there is such a wide variety of stores that cater towards this demographic. You mention how some stores were more accessible to buy from, if possible, I think adding in a photo of people shopping within these stores would highlight the community and amount of people that are in this demographic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aubrey WittmerJune 25, 2025 at 1:16 PM

    Hello Jonathan! I think this is a really nice idea with focusing more on one aspect of the mall, like sports stores, and mapping out all of them in the mall. It is interesting just how many sports stores there could be in one location and how many people like this collective interest. I think an idea to add is the more social aspect with people in the photos, shopping at the sports shops, are looking. Just more about the social part than just the different stores. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Caitlin pJune 25, 2025 at 3:20 PM

    Hey Jonathan,
    I think this was a very personal piece and one that seemed to reside with you. It's really interesting because in all the photos the mall looks completely dead, but extremely clean and stocked with inventory. I think this could've been an interesting post to the dissolution of malls as a whole. Overall I like the voice in this and loved all the visuals.

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