mall fever

Now that there has been an on-going heat wave in Warsaw, people are looking for ways to escape. Most people do not have air conditioning in their homes because it wasn't really necessary as there often weren't heat waves here in the past. If people can't escape to the beach or to a lake, shopping malls are a common place of escape. The Warsaw Diaries has yet to have highlighted malls in Warsaw as they are a recent phenomenon. Unlike in North America, malls came to Poland in the late 90's and the more modern ones were built after 2000. The one pictured here, Zloty Tarasy, was built only a few years ago next to the train station. My local friends loathe the place but it is always packed. Interesting things to point out is the mix of Polish and foreign brands, few low end shops and a lot of middle to high end shops and a lot of British brands, especially those for young women like Top Shop. Mostly, I am curious as to who is shopping, who is paying for it because prices here are very high in comparison to average salary of an educated person. For example, Zara marks up its products about 20% more than in Western Europe. Why? I'm not sure but one guess is because they can. Demand is high and selection in Poland is much less than in Western Europe.