Mall Ninja - Street Smarts

by Brent T. Wheat in the April 2011 issue
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I had heard the term “Mall Ninja,” but since I’m an infrequent visitor on Internet chat forums, I didn’t know this phenomenon had taken on a whole new life out there in cyberspace.

While stumbling around the Internet on a research trip, I ran across a website that discussed the origins of the Mall Ninja. After reading the story and shooting a diet cola right through my nostrils, I realized that this was the essence, the ideal, the succinct distillation of the stereotype I had been sneering at for years.

Formally dissected, the Mall Ninja is a person (typically male) who understands the need to prepare for the eventualities of life but takes such preparations to extremes...

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