What can we learn about Tampa Bay based on it's shopping?

Shopping, unless you're dashing into a drugstore to pick up Charmin, is a personal thing.

My mall — my mall — is Westfield Countryside in Clearwater, and not because it's spectacular. I've just been going there forever. I strutted through alone for the first time at 13. I sold lava lamps there at 16, CDs at 19. I know where everything is, what's coming and going, where to park, where not to park. It's mine.

We all venture out, trying the bright shops of Dunedin and the quirky artist hive of the 600 block in downtown St. Petersburg. But most people I know stay close to what they know, because that's how life is. Our communities here are different, and the shopping reflects that.

We have huge suburban centers in Citrus Park and Wesley Chapel, charming independent strips in Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs. We finally have those big city stores, Ikea and Crate & Barrel. In 2011, we welcomed clothing giant H&M to Tampa's International Plaza.

If anything unites us, it's that place. On any given day, you'll meet shoppers from Tampa, from St. Petersburg, from other states and other countries. They flock for the mall's upscale look-at-me attitude and stores you can't find other places.

Of course, that was always the intention. International Plaza opened in 2001, just minutes away from a place where everyone knows the spot with the best coffee, where to park, where not to park. A place that belongs to all of us.

The Tampa International Airport.

Stephanie Hayes is a Times staff writer.