Social Class

Social class depends in the area in which you are located. For example malls is a place where one can see what social class is in the area. I was in Los Angeles to visit family and friends about a month ago and stopped by the Beverly Center which is located in Beverly Hills. Stores such as: A|X Armani Exchange, Bloomingdale's, Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc is what the mall consists of. I decided to choose that shopping center because I feel like the Beverly Center is a representation of the majority of Southern California. Lets not ignore the various working class neighborhoods in LA such like Compton, Inglewood, and East Los Angeles where malls in those areas tend to be influenced by the working class population. The Beverly Center is beautiful and glamorous all around over all. The reason why is because of the area where it is located in, Beverly Hills is a highly wealthy area to live in. Many famous people live in that neighborhood and around that area as well which makes it a wealthy expensive area since famous people are extremely rich. So therefore the malls around there are expected to represent what kind of people live around there. The inside of the mall is very sheik and modern; it is extremely well taken care of and clean. The kinds of people who are mostly seen at the Beverly Center are high class and wealthy people, which the stores are designed to target. The stores are pretty pricey with limited chances of there being sales. The stores try to portray the glamorous look by having their stores with a plethora of lighting and space. All the stores are bigger than usual to fulfill the lifestyle of many wealthy people.

The first individual who stood out to me who had “status markers” that indicated she was rich was a lady in her mid 30s that was carry a Louis Vuitton bag on her forearm and was very well dressed. Louis Vuitton bags are not cheap, they are highly expensive so one can conclude if you can afford a $1,000-$5,000 bag then you must have money. Her posture and appearance also showed she was part of the high class, especially because she was wearing some really high high-heels. However what really demonstrated to me that she was wealthy was that she was walking into the Louis Vuitton Store, which demonstrated she had potential, and probably the spending power to purchase another expensive bag.

The second individual who also stood out to me who had “status markers” that indicated she was rich was an older lady who was wearing big black Prada sunglasses. This showed she was glamorous and showed a sign of trying to show they are too good and better than others. It showed she was not paying attention to anyone else but herself. Many wealthy people let their wealth get to them because they believe money is everything. Not only was she wearing expensive sunglasses in the mall, she was also walking around with her car keys dangling from her fingers. The car keys happen to be for a Mercedes Benz, which concluded she was rich.

The last individual who lastly stood out to me who had “status markers” that indicated he was part of the upper class was a white older male who was sitting with his legs crossed and talking on his iPhone. I was curious to know what his conversation was about so I sat next to him to hear what he was talking about; He was talking to a client about calling his office to schedule a consultation appointment. Since it was a consultation appointment probably meant he was a plastic surgeon. He face was almost perfect which showed he had probably had some plastic surgery done he. Surgeons obviously are rich and he demonstrated that by crossing his legs. Crossing his legs indicated that he has class and is very elegant. His posture as well helped me come to this conclusion. Body language can tell a lot about the class of an individual and his body language showed he was part of the upper class due to his occupation of being a plastic surgeon.

These three individual definitely represented what LA is mainly thought of, rich and glamorous but what can be misleading assuming about their indexes and what must be considered for them having those expensive items is they are probably in debit or the items are fake.

The Beverly Center is definitely an upper class shopping center where many rich people go to shop and show off their expensive things. The similarity I seen in all three individuals I observed was they were skinny and seem well-taken care. All three of the individuals also had great, excellent posture. However I also seen that those who are not as wealthy as the majority of people at the mall, try to live up to their lifestyle by having expensive things not matter what the factors are. Many people try to live up to the glamorous and extravagant lifestyle that many famous and rich individuals portray to society of what rich and glamorous is.