You know the nasty tricks marketers make, like placing fundamental needs such as water, bread etc. at the end of the store, or putting escalators to only one end of a shopping mall. The idea is to make you walk around to increase your consumption.

I noticed a trend towards creating more social environments at the restaurants in Kanyon. I guess that is a managerial decision by the mall itself, it’s less likely that all the owners of cafes and restaurants collectively followed a new trend. Maybe the concept of Wagamama was influential in making this decision, who knows… Most restaurants have seating arrangements such that you have to sit in a big table, next to other customers. It’s a bit uncomfortable at first, but I believe this is a more civilized manner. It is beneficial for the cafe owners as well, since they can fit in more customers to a limited space.

I love shopping malls. Who doesn’t? In today’s busy world, being able to find all the shops in one place is certainly a time and effort saver. Kanyon, a new shopping mall in Turkey certainly deserves some publicity here.

The architectural design is astonishing, as the name suggests the design resembles a canyon. If we look at the previous shopping malls in this neighborhood, Akmerkez stands out by being the oldest one. The circular shape of Akmerkez is a brilliant way to design a shopping mall, because MetroCity’s rectangular design helps you realize the design flaw and appreciate the difference between the two approaches.

  • People who go after their dreams is something to talk about. Barış Akkırış, at the age of 28, quits his big corporate job to go on a journey around the world. He shares the details of the journey that lasted 9.5 months on his blog as well. I’m sure that it was a priceless experience and I feel very, very envious!
  • The experience of using an Apple with a 30” screen is tempting for everyone with an interest in computers. I need to stay away from these Apple stores for a while, in order to continue enjoying products of other brands. Apple products are so impressive in their design and very appealing to the eye as well.

I enjoy reading non-fiction books and Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. He published two best sellers, The Tipping Point and Blink. The former explains how social phenomena emerge and focuses on the tipping points, small factors that have caused great changes in the society. In the latter book, he argues about the power of snap judgements and the importance of trusting our senses. His style is argumentative, in the sense that he makes an observation and supports his claim with research findings in social sciences.

It is the little things that makes a difference, they always say. Yeah, surely it is. It is the five minutes my friend spared to help me with my luggage, it is the automatic pause feature of ipod when your headphones get plugged out, it is the automatic underlining of numbers in your Sony Ericsson phone and it is the lights at the ceiling of Kanyon shopping mall that resembles stars at night. It is probably these little things that separate the special ones from the rest.