Re: I Went to a Mall and it Made Me Cry

haddon9 · ‎03-09-2010

It is very sad what has happened to many malls. I can remember that they were The place to go when I was a teenager! So many good memories going to some local malls. Now many are ghost towns.

Over the winter I went into the King of Prussia mall (not far from QVC) and that place was packed!! It's huge (it think it's the second or third largest mall in the country) with a lot of high end stores. I was so surprised to see how crowded it was....it looked like years ago.

We even tried to have an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory there and the line was ridiculous! There must have been over 100 people waiting outside of the restaurant in the mall & another 100 or so waiting indoors...we went to another restaurant.

You know what else I find sad...the outlet shopping centers. I took a drive over the winter to the outlets in Flemington, NJ. It was another ghost town!

The outlet shopping center back in the day was what Flemington was known for. Out of all of the stores that used to be there only one was still open. I heard that they are planning on demolishing everything and putting up apartments or condos.

I took another drive in the outlets by Peddlar's Village in Lahaska, PA. It was the same story. Only the Coach outlet was open.

plmokn · ‎03-31-2010

MAlls were great places till they became too dangerous to be in! Mom (80 years old) was mugged right in the hallway by three thugs, no weapons but attacked from behind by one and the others did their thing with her, robbed her purse which was around her neck and damaged her neck trying to get it away from her. No one helped but they sure were filming the attack. Thugs were never caught, still out there probably looking for YOU! These were very young thugs! We are never going to a shopping place ever again! They took a credit card and went to a gas station and started selling gas on mom's card to customers. No one reported or helped. They rang up almost $400 dollars of gas and left. Still no arrests and never will be.

proudlyfromNJ · ‎05-01-2010

@Sooner wrote:
Crime is overlooked and people don't work for a living in many instances. Entitlement has led to this. We think everyone deserves everything just because.

@Sooner Crime isn't overlooked here. Jury duty for the county called me recently. Also have a friend who is a detective a few towns over. He is as busy as he always was. Although not tons of crime has ever been here as the local towns are small.

Jacie · ‎01-09-2011

Crime has taken over the malls. I am just fine with on-line shopping and have gotten very good at it!

I actually like that I can get something done on those nights when it is hard to sleep!

"Cats are poetry in motion. Dogs are gibberish in neutral." -Garfield

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

Malls everywhere are dying or already dead. It started here about 20 years ago. It doesn't make me sad at all. Malls had their time but they have been made irrelevant by online shopping and I suppose shopping channels. People want access to thousands of items, not just the very limited selection in brick&mortar stores. I can literally find anything I want, at a price I can afford by searching online. And it comes right to my door. For example, I wanted an white blazer. Nautical style with gold buttons. I wanted a size 18. I wanted to spend less than $75. Trust me, no b&m store was going to have it. I Googled and found several at name stores. Bought from Walmart. A company that sells on their platform, it was not a Walmart item. It came in a week, beautifully packaged and surpassed my expectations in every way because it only cost $40. It looks like a $300 blazer. I'm short so the sleeves are long, my dry cleaner will hem the sleeves for $30. Anything I want is available. There are some much smaller fancy outside malls that have $$$ stores and boutiques. We go to those malls for the restaurants and sometimes I do browse the stores.

Still Raining · ‎03-30-2014

When I was I kid we went downtown to smaller stores. Mom even put on a hat sometimes. Then came malls, which were fun. Now I am back to smaller stores. A full circle.

My grandma got me my first eyeshadow stick at a dime store and I have taken my granddaughter to a freestanding Sephora.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

@SamBrown wrote:
@Sooner wrote:
Crime is overlooked and people don't work for a living in many instances. Entitlement has led to this. We think everyone deserves everything just because.
@Sooner Unemployment is way down. Who, exactly are all of these people who are not working? Entitlement has led to the downfall of malls??? I think malls/stores themselves have led to their own downfall.

@SamBrown Easy answer on this one. People who aren't counted in our underground economy. A number of people who aren't on the books aren't working. They are robbing, dealing, grifting and living off free stuff doled out to anyone who asks--no questions or proof of anything needed.

Why work? They are lots of the people you see on video breaking into cars, breaking into stores, robbing in parking lots, dealing drugs, and on and on. We didn't used to see all that back when the economy thrived and malls were SAFE, which they are not now.

Correlation? Yep. Causation? A big probably from what I see.

Trinity11 · ‎11-16-2014

We have some malls here on Long Island that are crowded. The anchor stores seem to be quite busy.

In Bergen County, New Jersey, friends told me even getting a parking space on weekends is still hard at Garden State Plaza. My daughter frequents the Mall at Short Hills and said it is packed on weekends. So I guess it is dependent on where a person lives.

reiki604 · ‎03-09-2010

@Sooner wrote:
@SamBrown wrote:
@Sooner wrote:
Crime is overlooked and people don't work for a living in many instances. Entitlement has led to this. We think everyone deserves everything just because.
@Sooner Unemployment is way down. Who, exactly are all of these people who are not working? Entitlement has led to the downfall of malls??? I think malls/stores themselves have led to their own downfall.
@SamBrown Easy answer on this one. People who aren't counted in our underground economy. A number of people who aren't on the books aren't working. They are robbing, dealing, grifting and living off free stuff doled out to anyone who asks--no questions or proof of anything needed.

Why work? They are lots of the people you see on video breaking into cars, breaking into stores, robbing in parking lots, dealing drugs, and on and on. We didn't used to see all that back when the economy thrived and malls were SAFE, which they are not now.

Correlation? Yep. Causation? A big probably from what I see.

The people you are talking about have always been there. They are nothing new and there have been complaints about them for as long as there have been retail stores. I remember my grandparents having a very similar conversation back in the 60's, 60 years ago. The only difference is there weren't malls, only streets lined with stores. Dangerous because people 'knew you were carrying money' since you were in a shopping area and credit cards weren't a thingl yet.

'I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man'.......Unknown

FlyersGirl · ‎03-13-2010

@haddon9

I had the same experience at KOP Mall. It was so crowded! It seemed as though all of the store bays were filled, even with some pop up stores.

My brother was at Plymouth Meeting mall recently and he said it was a Ghost Town. I live near Montgomery Mall and that mall had vacant stores for some time. This one makes me really sad as I spent a lot of time and money in that Mall. Willow Grove mall seems to be doing OK.

Peddlars Village stores are doing well, but you are right about the outlet stores. Another group of empty stores. It has been a very long time since I have been to Flemington, but when I was there it was packed. I am sad to read that everything closed.

I know I am part of the "problem" as I do a lot of on line shopping and have been shopping that way since long before the pandemic.