Among Friends

[Witchy Woman]

@Shanus

Cannot tell you the last time I went to any mall.  Years, for sure.

When I moved to this area, there was no stores to speak of.  Then, they built a mall and it seemed a dream come true.  I even liked shopping back then.

Mostly I just don't want to take the time to walk and walk in search of something.  I have the time, but driving 20 minutes to my local mall, parking, walking around takes 1/2 the day, and no guarantee I'll find what I want. 

If I drive to Tysons in VA, it pretty much takes all day.  You need to pack a lunch for that trip! 

There was a time when I was young, I would have been thrilled to drag around in the stores all day, but no more.

I'm in the DC/MD area and there are countless malls.  Have no idea if they are thriving or not.

[CANDLEQUEEN]

Our local indoor mall is never busy, even in December last year, it was not what  I would call busy! There are very few stores in there to begin with, and they just finished remodeling the inside, but neglected to add stores that people want to shop in. 

Our Premium Outlet Mall, just 1/2 hour away is always busy!!!!

[jeanlake]

With the exception of one, enclosed mall, most enclosed malls in our metro area are situated in declining neighborhoods. Some malls have been razed to make room for office buildings. Newer shopping 'fairs' or centers, that are not enclosed, are doing well. So are outlet malls.     

[GenXmuse]

I wish I could find a mall that wasn't crowded all the time. 

[Alison Wonderland]

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@FrostyBabe1 wrote:

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@Group 5 minus 1 wrote:

We have several malls in Grand Rapids and I cannot remember the last time we were at a mall. Our malls have become a hang out for teens.

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Respectfully, how do you know that they’re teen hangouts if you haven’t been there? When I’m home, if I’m going to shop in a store, I drive up to GR to the malls. Lots more to choose from and I’ve never seen crowds of teens. 

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Might depend on where you live, but a lot of malls are seeing lots of teenagers. Nationally, it's a thing: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-25/are-u-s-malls-dead-not-if-gen-z-keeps-shopping-th...

A friend of mine in Connecticut told me that two malls there have recently announced a curfew for anyone under the age of 18. They have to be accompanied by an adult or leave and the curfew is set to begin on Black Friday and last to the end of the holiday season. There wouldn't be much need for that if teens weren't hanging out at the mall.

I see lots of teens at the mall near me.

It's interesting to me because when I was a teenager, we hung out at the mall all the time. A few years ago, the news was reporting that teens were avoiding malls. Now they're back and it sounds like the malls are working hard to keep them. We'll see what the next trend brings!

[Sheila P-Burg]

Where I live now is a small farm community. There is one mall but most of the stores that were in the mall have closed so there isn't much there. Being this type of community there isn't very many places for the teenagers to "hang out". No clubs within an hours drive, no movie theaters, etc. None of the remaining restaurants want them. So they wind up at the mall. Like I said, not many stores but there is still the snack area where they can get pizza, hamburgers, etc. 

[itsmagic]

Our mall has lost most of their anchor stores and now we have Macy’s and JC Penney.   The vacated stores have become places like arcades or trampoline type places for kids.   A few smaller stores remain but they are geared more for the young adults. 

[blackhole99]

The only time I shop at the mall is for curtains and I don't care to be around a crowd of people these days if I don't have to. I just ordered water filters for my Aqua Tru from Amazon and they were delivered in approx. 24 hours via UPS and I didn't pay a cent S&H and didn't have to drive 35 min. to the mall. The Q better wise up when it comes to Free S&H and returns. Most of the stores have left our mall and service type businesses are moving in.

[reiki604]

You were there on a weeknight a week before Thanksgiving. People are thinking and preparing for travel, meals, company. I don't think mall shopping would be high on anyone's list right now. I stay away from the mall as much as humanly possible, but that's just me. My mall just had a major expansion with many new stores and restaurants. Haven't been to any, I just go straight to the Apple store or the bank.

[ECBG]

@Shanus Having been in retail for 10 years after teaching, I can tell you Wednesday evenings have always been dead unless you're dealing with Christmas.  Even Easter shoppers were done by dinner time, lol!!!

Also, coupons rarely change on Wednesdays.