War and shopping - the extremism that never speaks its name...

Looking for a bookshop that was no longer there, I walked instead into a labyrinth designed as a trap. Leaving became an illusion, rather like Alice once she had stepped through the Looking Glass. Walls of glass curved into concentric circles as one "store" merged into another: Armani Exchange with Dinky-Di Pies. Exits led to gauntlets of more "offers". Seeking a guide, I bought a lousy pair of sunglasses. Anything to get out. It was a vision of hell. It was a Westfield mega mall.

This happened in Sydney - where the Westfield empire began - in a "mall" not half as mega as the one that opened in Stratford, east London on 13 September. "Everything" is here, the architectural critic Jonathan Glancey reported, from Apple to Primark, McDonald's and KFC to Krispy Kreme. There is a cinema with 17 screens and "luxurious VIP seats", and a mega "luxury" bowling alley. Tracey Emin and Mary Portas lead the Westfield "cultural team". A "24-hour lifestyle street" called the Arcade leads to the biggest casino in the land. This will be the only way into the 2012 Olympic Games for seven million people attending the athletics. The simple, grotesque message "buy me, buy me" will be London's welcome to the world. Full story...

Don't miss:

1. Culture of credit seducing Swiss youth and pushing them into debt...
2. Poor looters are the street version of the wealthy ones...
3. Black Friday shopping rampage in the USA... 
4. They got bailed out, we got sold out...
5. 'Why everything sucks'
6. Manipulating children into becoming nagging consumers...
7. Logorama, the story of corporate America...