No Trampling

[Legs]

today at my local Mall. :crickets:

Just the other day on the Wall-Mart death thread I posted that I would rather pay more and shop in comfort than line up for anything and that I would not shop on a weekend. Well, as luck would have it I had to venture out to the Mall today as I have 4 Family Birthdays coming up. (HG, Widget, my Sister, my Dad)

So I thought I was crazy going over today, but I shocked at how empty it was. The Mall opened at 10:00am, the major department stores opened at 9:00am, I arrived at Noon.

Some pics from my blackberry (sorry they suck)


Sears Men's Dept.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=185



Sears Ladies
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=184



H & M
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=176



One dude
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=175



http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=178



Nobody buying thongs
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=181



Chocolate & Gifts shop completely deserted
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=172



Sportswear Store
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=177



I bought wrapping paper here for my special :ff: Giftee :cheersanta:
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=170



http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=174


http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=171



Food Court at the HEIGHT of lunch hour (1pm)
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=183



Drugstore/Post Office where there is usually a massive line up
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=182



Quietest Mall evar :eyebrow:
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=173


http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=179



The only line I encountered all day was for my coffee which is worth lining up for. :nod:
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=180

[beyelzu]

and this is why i am really looking to my xmas shopping season which starts in mid to late january for those badass after xmas clearance sales at the mall.

[Legs]

pssst, you should have done your Christmas shopping LAST January
:psst:

[Potato]

I heard the Mall of America was packed yesterday. My roommate and her boyfriend went and said they had to park on the roof of one of the ramps. That's seven or eight or so levels of parking. There are two ramps.

They said it was pretty busy.



Maybe you went shopping when everyone was at lunch!

[beyelzu]

pssst, you should have done your Christmas shopping LAST January
:psst:

i have conditioned all of my giftees to either not expect gifts from me, to expect online gifts or gifts that come sometime around my own birthday, january 29th.

Sometimes, having your friends and family think that you are a bit odd is a good thing.

[biochemgirl]

Thongs and chocolate..you know the way to my heart. :wriggle:

Actually I hit the after Christmas sales also and buy for next year. :yup:

The Mall of America I would never ever go to in Christmas season. That place is a zoo most of the time as it is.

[godfry n. glad]

today at my local Mall. :crickets:

Well...No wonder. That Timu Hortoni outlet confirms that it's in Canuckistan. Do they even celebrate Christmas in Canuckistan?

I heard they have socialized health care in Canuckistan, ergo, they must not have any accrued wealth, nor will they have any disposable income after all the socialistic taxes suck them dry. Christmas is unpossible in Canuckistan.

[Ymir's blood]

Legs, you need those tights on the mannequin at H&M.

[Legs]

godfry, you been drinking? :narrow:

My dear Ymir's blood, Legs is too old to wear anything from H & M. :oldlady:

[Dingfod]

Is it just me, or does every mall look pretty much the same?

[godfry n. glad]

godfry, you been drinking? :narrow:

No...I wish. I do have my tongue firmly jammed over into one cheek, though. That could make it sound as though I'm inebriated.

[godfry n. glad]

Is it just me, or does every mall look pretty much the same?


It's not just you, Ding. Every mall does look pretty much the same.

Rumor has it that they are being produced en masse by political prisoners being held in a camp somewhere outside of Chengdu. We ship them raw materials, they ship us shopping malls and all the crap in them.

[Dingfod]

So malls are like McDonald's or Walmarts, the same no matter where you are. How boring.

[Qingdai]

Even in Nanjing, malls are pretty much the same.
They are a bit more crowded with stuff in Nanjing, that's about it.

[vremya]

The Mall of America I would never ever go to in Christmas season. That place is a zoo most of the time as it is.

CaDan and I went to the Mall of American on Christmas Eve day once. Never again!!!!

[Shelli]

:shudder:

[Legs]

Is it just me, or does every mall look pretty much the same?

No, I would have to say no they do not all look the same. Today's mall is like a mid level decent mall, mainstream stores, nonthing fancy.

We have a few glitzy malls around that have super expensive high end stores and specialty shops. They look completely different than my non nonsense local mall.

There there are the shabbier malls with icky stores, I never go in those malls :nojustno:

Then there is the strip mall type set up and those big sort of outdoor malls with factory warehouses... etc...

[Qingdai]

The types of malls you describe, Legs, can be found any where in the US too:
The good one, the strip, the icky one, the mid level mall.
The character of the malls seems to depend on the anchor stores, more than the geographic area.
I believe that may be what Dingfod was commenting about.

[Legs]

Gotcha.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

This mall looks familiar, beyond the "all malls look alike" thing.

Where is it?

[Legs]

ZOMGSTALKER!!!1

[Qingdai]

Legs is in Canada, but it does look nearly identical to Clackamas Town center mall in Oregon. Same skylights, same tile and same lay out.
If it didn't have a Tim Horton's I would think Legs was stalking me.

[Dingfod]

Qingdai is right, that is basically what I was saying. What I was talking about was the generic indoor shopping mall, not strip malls (what I grew up calling shopping strips or centers).

Tulsa no longer has an upscale mall, though there is one upscale shopping center, Utica Square. There used to be one downtown, in fact, I am in it right now. Back in the 70s to early 80s, it had an ice skating rink and food court in the bottom level and two levels of upscale retailers, restaurants, and bars surrounding an open atrium on the upper two levels. It had no megabox anchor stores at all, all relatively small stores, some of which were national chain stores. See attached pictures.

We still have the atrium, but it's all offices now, with the cafeteria, fitness center, and credit union down where the food court and skating rink used to be. The single screen theater that used to be here is now used as for company presentations. The economic depression brought on by low oil prices in the 80s killed this mall and most of downtown Tulsa, but what used to be the mall is still very nice.

Then there are the strip malls, they can vary from dumpy to upscale, some even built like a quaint village (The Farm and Utica Square). Many of the more modern are like the indoor malls in that they too are starting to look a lot alike in that they have the same big box stores as anchors, you know, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Target, Lowes, Belk, Marshalls, etc.

[biochemgirl]

Belk? What is that??

[Ensign Steve]

It's kind of like Macy's. Or maybe JC Penny.

[Dingfod]

Belk is a mutant bear-elk hybrid.

Actually, Belk (http://www.belk.com/) is a clothier, I hear.

Link courtesy of Google.

[biochemgirl]

We don't have Macy's in Iowa but JC Penny I know. :yup: Younkers is the other big one, slightly more upscale then Penny's but I think that's a midwest thing.

[Shelli]

I like to go malling once, maybe twice a year. I enjoy it up to a point, but by the time I'm leaving, I'm almost running for the door. :freakout:

[Dingfod]

We don't have Macy's in Iowa but JC Penny I know. :yup: Younkers is the other big one, slightly more upscale then Penny's but I think that's a midwest thing.I only heard of Belk recently, in a new shopping center six or seven miles from us. Belk is a Southern store chain. I've never heard of Younkers. Have you heard of Herbergers (http://www.herbergers.com/)? White Mountain Mall in Rock Springs, Wyoming once had a Hersbergers as an anchor store. How about Nordstroms? They're a Seattle-based chain, somewhat upscale, like Dillards.

[biochemgirl]

Nope, never heard of Herbergers either. Looks like it's owned by the same company as Younkers is now.

I've heard of Nordstroms but that's only from going to the Mall of America. Don't have any of those in Iowa either. I guess Iowa is not the shopping capital of the country. Weird huh?

[godfry n. glad]

Nope, never heard of Herbergers either. Looks like it's owned by the same company as Younkers is now.

I've heard of Nordstroms but that's only from going to the Mall of America. Don't have any of those in Iowa either. I guess Iowa is not the shopping capital of the country. Weird huh?

I suspect, but I'm not absolutely sure, that it's because those high fashion type outlets have problems with the payments in bushels of corn and porkbellies.

[biochemgirl]

:giggle: Hey that's not fair. Sometimes we pay in moonshine too.

[Ensign Steve]

I only heard of Belk recently, in a new shopping center six or seven miles from us. Belk is a Southern store chain.
Yah, I think I've only seen it in North Carolina. Maybe I saw it in Georgia once, but I can't remember.

[beyelzu]

Hypothetically speaking, the mall near your house may have had a 3 or 4 story belks* in it that you passed a billion times while living in augusta.




*to be fair to you though, it totally faced towards you and its name was only in 20 foot tall letters on the side of the building

[beyelzu]

We Live in a monoculture.
What does that mean? Well, go out to your street corner. You'll probably see a Long Pig stand, SPKF on a screen somewhere, an Angry Boy Dylan's Gun Store. You'll go into a record store and see new recordings by the usual suspects, maybe a special Space Culture display rack.

Go out onto a streecorner in London and you'll see the same thing. Same in Prague. Same in Sao Paulo. Same in Osaka, and Grozny, and Tehran, and Jo'burg, and Hobart.

That's what a monoculture is. It's everywhere, and it's all the same. And it takes up alien cultures and digests them and shits them out in a homogenous building-block shape that fits seamlessly into the vast blank wall of the monoculture.

This is the future. This is what we built. This is what we wanted. It must have been. Because we all had the fucking choice, didn't we? It is only our money that allows commercial culture to flower. If we didnt want to live like this, we could have changed it any time, by not fucking paying for it.

So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger.

[Brimshack]

Hey, your mall looks just like the one I used to go tom in Vegas. ...and the other one I used to go to in vegas. ...and it's preytty close to the one I go to now in Flagstaff. Or...


(Shudder!) I HATE malls!

[Ensign Steve]

Hypothetically speaking, the mall near your house may have had a 3 or 4 story belks* in it that you passed a billion times while living in augusta.




*to be fair to you though, it totally faced towards you and its name was only in 20 foot tall letters on the side of the building

That was Dillards, smartie pants.

[pescifish]

The types of malls you describe, Legs, can be found any where in the US too:
The good one, the strip, the icky one, the mid level mall.
The character of the malls seems to depend on the anchor stores, more than the geographic area.
I believe that may be what Dingfod was commenting about.I mostly agree with this clarification and definitely agree that the anchor stores dictate the look/feel of a mall.

However, I do not believe every geographic area in the U.S.A. can support all of the various levels. I do not believe the sorts of high end anchors and satellite retail stores found in the more chi-chi malls of more affluent areas could survive in most areas of the U.S.A..

Not all malls look alike or feel alike.

[wildernesse]

There are Belk stores in Georgia. Offhand, I can think of ones in LaGrange, Athens, and Cornelia. They tend not to be very far south, though.

[godfry n. glad]

The types of malls you describe, Legs, can be found any where in the US too:
The good one, the strip, the icky one, the mid level mall.
The character of the malls seems to depend on the anchor stores, more than the geographic area.
I believe that may be what Dingfod was commenting about.I mostly agree with this clarification and definitely agree that the anchor stores dictate the look/feel of a mall.

However, I do not believe every geographic area in the U.S.A. can support all of the various levels. I do not believe the sorts of high end anchors and satellite retail stores found in the more chi-chi malls of more affluent areas could survive in most areas of the U.S.A..

Not all malls look alike or feel alike.

Well....yeah...

We don't have no Needless Markup outlets in this area.

But then, I've never seen a Needless Markup outlet anywhere, much less in a mall. They rather strike me as the type to be located in a freestanding commercial building (probably surrounded by a tall wrought iron fence with tastefully attached razor wire) rather than risk being smeared by the sheer tackiness of "those other stores" in any given mall.

[pescifish]

WTF did you just say, godfry?

Seriously, I really can't tell. :cry:

[godfry n. glad]

WTF did you just say, godfry?

Seriously, I really can't tell. :cry:


This might help...

Needless Markup = Neiman Marcus

Does that clarify?

[pescifish]

Oh yeah! Heh. Thanks!

What's worse is that the sorts of malls I'm thinking of would consider Nieman Marcus rather poor sad sack relations.

[pescifish]

For example... Not the snootiest, by far, but the anchor stores in the following mall does not do justice to its smaller retailers, many of whom are very high end.

South Coast Plaza (http://www.southcoastplaza.com/) is offering a free gift with purchase Dec 5-13. Click the link to see what the gift is and what the minimum purchase threshhold will get it for you...

[godfry n. glad]

$800 to get some Anchor Hocking knock-off piece of junk nut bowl? Are these people sane?

[Ymir's blood]

Oh yeah! Heh. Thanks!

What's worse is that the sorts of malls I'm thinking of would consider Nieman Marcus rather poor sad sack relations.

Suitable only to be looted by Wasilla hillbillies.

[Ensign Steve]

The types of malls you describe, Legs, can be found any where in the US too:
The good one, the strip, the icky one, the mid level mall.
The character of the malls seems to depend on the anchor stores, more than the geographic area.
I believe that may be what Dingfod was commenting about.I mostly agree with this clarification and definitely agree that the anchor stores dictate the look/feel of a mall.

However, I do not believe every geographic area in the U.S.A. can support all of the various levels. I do not believe the sorts of high end anchors and satellite retail stores found in the more chi-chi malls of more affluent areas could survive in most areas of the U.S.A..

Not all malls look alike or feel alike.

Agreed. Especially look at the shopping centers in Las Vegas. Used to just be the Forum Shops at Caesars, but now it seems like there's at least 10 of them of that same caliber. I don't think you could have that in any other city, except maybe like Dubai or Monaco. Cities that are specifically about indulgence.

[beyelzu]

Hypothetically speaking, the mall near your house may have had a 3 or 4 story belks* in it that you passed a billion times while living in augusta.




*to be fair to you though, it totally faced towards you and its name was only in 20 foot tall letters on the side of the building

That was Dillards, smartie pants.

My heart says you are wrong, but the belks store locator says i am a dipshit.

:doh:

[beyelzu]

The types of malls you describe, Legs, can be found any where in the US too:
The good one, the strip, the icky one, the mid level mall.
The character of the malls seems to depend on the anchor stores, more than the geographic area.
I believe that may be what Dingfod was commenting about.I mostly agree with this clarification and definitely agree that the anchor stores dictate the look/feel of a mall.

However, I do not believe every geographic area in the U.S.A. can support all of the various levels. I do not believe the sorts of high end anchors and satellite retail stores found in the more chi-chi malls of more affluent areas could survive in most areas of the U.S.A..

Not all malls look alike or feel alike.

Agreed. Especially look at the shopping centers in Las Vegas. Used to just be the Forum Shops at Caesars, but now it seems like there's at least 10 of them of that same caliber. I don't think you could have that in any other city, except maybe like Dubai or Monaco. Cities that are specifically about indulgence.

its just like flea markets, not all flea markets can have a quality gun dealer, like the one over in alabama i do to where I like to buy my untraceable firearms.

[Ensign Steve]

Hypothetically speaking, the mall near your house may have had a 3 or 4 story belks* in it that you passed a billion times while living in augusta.




*to be fair to you though, it totally faced towards you and its name was only in 20 foot tall letters on the side of the building

That was Dillards, smartie pants.

My heart says you are wrong, but the belks store locator says i am a dipshit.

:doh:

Don't talk to a Valley Girl about her malls. I don't tell you how to fuck your sister.

[beyelzu]

Hypothetically speaking, the mall near your house may have had a 3 or 4 story belks* in it that you passed a billion times while living in augusta.




*to be fair to you though, it totally faced towards you and its name was only in 20 foot tall letters on the side of the building

That was Dillards, smartie pants.

My heart says you are wrong, but the belks store locator says i am a dipshit.

:doh:

Don't talk to a Valley Girl about her malls. I don't tell you how to fuck your sister.
Peace.

I beg mercy. The terms of the armistice will be as follows, I will defer to your judgment in all things related to cocaine use, malls and the evil gay agenda. My providence will include sisterfuckin, negro lynchin, and evolution denyin.

[Qingdai]

The types of malls you describe, Legs, can be found any where in the US too:
The good one, the strip, the icky one, the mid level mall.
The character of the malls seems to depend on the anchor stores, more than the geographic area.
I believe that may be what Dingfod was commenting about.I mostly agree with this clarification and definitely agree that the anchor stores dictate the look/feel of a mall.

However, I do not believe every geographic area in the U.S.A. can support all of the various levels. I do not believe the sorts of high end anchors and satellite retail stores found in the more chi-chi malls of more affluent areas could survive in most areas of the U.S.A..

Not all malls look alike or feel alike.

Agreed. Especially look at the shopping centers in Las Vegas. Used to just be the Forum Shops at Caesars, but now it seems like there's at least 10 of them of that same caliber. I don't think you could have that in any other city, except maybe like Dubai or Monaco. Cities that are specifically about indulgence.

its just like flea markets, not all flea markets can have a quality gun dealer, like the one over in alabama i do to where I like to buy my untraceable firearms.

Dude, I know it. It's hard to find a suitable flea market here. My dad has some untraceable firearms to sell too. Or ugly granma carnival glass, whatever.
He has to go to Tigard of all places....

I think the idea of "the good mall" classifications (and why I didn't name anchor stores) is they are a type dependent on the perception of the consumer they are targeting.
In California malls are cutting edge.

Our high end mall is this place (as near as I can figure).
Bridgeport Village - Best shopping center in Portland, OR (http://www.bridgeport-village.com/index.html)

[godfry n. glad]

Our high end mall is this place (as near as I can figure).
Bridgeport Village - Best shopping center in Portland, OR (http://www.bridgeport-village.com/index.html)


Eeeeeeeeeewwwwww.

I haven't been there. *surprise*

Looking at the stores, though, I note that they are all trendy middle class stores, not upscale trendsetter stores. Wannabee supplies. For me, Needless Markup is the marker for the kind of catering to wretched excess of which I was thinking.

[pescifish]

Agreed. Especially look at the shopping centers in Las Vegas. Used to just be the Forum Shops at Caesars, but now it seems like there's at least 10 of them of that same caliber. I don't think you could have that in any other city, except maybe like Dubai or Monaco. Cities that are specifically about indulgence.Yeah, those sorts of shopping malls are what I had in mind. That and Rodeo Drive. I haven't been to South Coast Plaza more than once, though I thought it was gorgeous.

The one time I needed to go to Rodeo Drive I was pleasantly surprised to find all the store employees to be open and welcoming and made for a very rewarding shopping experience. Compared to some wanna-be snoots in other high-end shopping centers (yeah, that's right, Coach store in Glendale compared to the one in Woodland Hills Promenade) who often ignore my fat ass and act like they really think I should be invisible.

[Qingdai]

Our high end mall is this place (as near as I can figure).
Bridgeport Village - Best shopping center in Portland, OR (http://www.bridgeport-village.com/index.html)


Eeeeeeeeeewwwwww.

I haven't been there. *surprise*

Looking at the stores, though, I note that they are all trendy middle class stores, not upscale trendsetter stores. Wannabee supplies. For me, Needless Markup is the marker for the kind of catering to wretched excess of which I was thinking.

I went to Bridgeport once, it was a lot like "valley of the people I damned in high school." I don't know if we have any serious upscale malls, Saxes on 5th?

I think I've been to the 1980's equivalent of South Coast Plaza. Whole different ball game, still has that undeniable mall feeling, an unwelcoming commons.

[wildernesse]

I went to our local mall yesterday to buy RA some pants (2 pairs of Dockers for less than $2--thanks to his mom's store coupons), and I don't know how much lower sales will be able to be after Christmas. In two of the anchor stores (Macy's and Belk), large swaths of the clothes were 30-50% often with an additional 20% if you used your store card. That wasn't even the clearance racks.

It looks like a lot of the fall/early winter clothing did not move. Although, looking at it, I'm not surprised. Most of the women's wear was not any higher quality (fabrics and construction) than what you would find at Target, and the prices (even at 50% off) were about twice as much as Target would be.

Dillard's had much, much nicer clothes in the sections that weren't for designers (like Ralph Lauren or Liz Claiborne), styled for adults who want to dress like adults and not overgrown teenagers. Fewer things were mustard and yellow-green and bright blue and magenta. (Good lord.) Not as much was on sale, but there were still some decent deals.

This mall is like a backwater, though. It is not popular with teens and is rather old and full of retirees. But it is closest to us, and we aren't fashionistas, so it is good enough. Other malls in the area with trendier stores might be doing much better.

Oh, and one clothing store in the mall had been padlocked by the sheriff. Excellent.

[Ensign Steve]

I went to Target at lunch today and did all my shopping in about 1 hour. It wasn't my usual Target (I don't actually have a usual Target right now because there is jack shit for shopping in Downtown, except that hoity mall at 7th and Fig that you can't park at and have to take the train to, but who wants to ride the train and then walk home through the park laden with parcels as if I had time to deal with all that anyway?), but it might become my usual Target because it's nice and it's on my way from school to work. I have no idea what kind of neighborhood it is (it's "Carson" which I know jack shit about, cuz it's in the South Bay and I'm a Valley Girl) but it was a really nice Target, and it shares a strip mall with a huge Ikea (the first one in Southern California, according to my friend, which I thought Burbank was the first one back in 88 or whenever, so this one's even older, but still nice at least on the outside), and then the weirdest thing, one of the store-fronts in the strip mall is actually the entrance to a regular mall. So like I think what happened was that this mall had the Target as it's anchor store, and then grew out from there into a larger strip mall with the Ikea, but that would have had to have been like over 20 years ago, so who knows how the hell that happened, but it's the weirdest mall/strip-mall hybrid thing I've ever seen.

What the fuck was I talking about? Oh, I finished all my Christmas shopping in an hour and then as soon as I got to work, mom called and said we're having two more people over. Looks like I'm going to be picking up some Best Buy gift cards or something.

The point is, the employees at this Target were all super cute. They were like vaguely ethnic brown people, but I don't know which flavor between asian or latin or what, and they had lots of cute haircuts and piercings, like they should work at the Hot Topic instead of Target.

[Dingfod]

I learned one thing about Xmas shopping today, do not go to Big Lots if they're busy and you're in a hurry. They only had two registers open and their cash register system is about as efficient as Kmart's used to be (maybe they're better now?), in other words, slo-o-o-o-w. One hitch, such as a coupon that didn't scan, they're stopped entirely. I stood in line holding three cans of spaghettios, two quarts of oil, a box of trash bags, and a bottle of laundry detergent for what seemed like hours. Further making it slow, it seemed to be "take your favorite nursing home resident shopping" day. Is a coin purse a prerequisite to being old? Count me out.

[Ensign Steve]

three cans of spaghettios, two quarts of oil, a box of trash bags, and a bottle of laundry detergent

Woo! Party at Dingfod's tonight! :flowerdance:

[JoeP]

* JoeP arrives late to this thread with the following information:

They have malls like that even in Gaborone, Botswana. With anchor tenants and all that.

Actually the Riverwalk mall has partly-open sections with weavers and starlings nesting. That's a nice touch.