Yeah, there is all this talk of recovery, but it sure wasn't in evidence yesterday when we went wedding present shopping. One of the crew is getting married next week and we figured we had better get at that little job before their fifth anniversary rolls around.
There were six cars in the entire Sear's parking lot. Six.
There was almost no one in the whole Rotterdam mall. You could have run a team of huskies, ten dogs strong, right up the center of any of the aisles and not tangled anyone in the traces. You could have held monster truck races....a tractor pull...a full-length circus parade, complete with elephants and kangaroos, and only discommoded a half a dozen folks.
The set of cookery we purchased for our young un', (who is a significant cook, having learned from toddlerhood at the knees of her grandma, plus filled in for her mama-who-was-in-the-barn many times) ended up being marked down $35 bucks by the time we got done. Everything else was deeply discounted too.
The food court, where once you would have felt like you'd been footballing by the time you fought your way to a table with your food, purchased from any of an amazing selection of stores, was bare. No Merry-go-round. Four restaurants left of the many, not even a McDonald's any more. And THREE people at the tables.
The whole mall was gleaming clean, but there were many empty store fronts. I was wondering if the aliens were carrying people off from there or something.
Maybe you have all seen this empty before but it was a shocker to me. I don't get out much......normally my shopping is confined to grocery stores and Wally World, which are both always bustling.
I had not recently been in a place where people buy their wants rather than their needs. From the evidence at the mall yesterday, people are needing, but they sure aren't bothering with wanting any more.
Or they just don't have any discretionary money any more, which is pretty much the same thing. I have to say that I was wishing I had some of that spendable stuff myself yesterday. I could have done the best Christmas shopping ever for a couple hundred bucks.
Oh, well, as my dad always says, better days are coming.
That would be ... unsettling. The malls here remain full, although sales are down a bit. But I laughed out loud at the sled dog team racing through the aisles. That's a good one. :)
ReplyDeleteLike you - I rarely go to a mall, but was recently in one with my sis-in-law.
ReplyDeleteI could not believe the emptiness.
Here in Ohio the median income has gone through the basement.
It hit a 27 year low.
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" . . discommoded a half a dozen folks."
Your visuals do pull a smile.
Rev. Paul, it was weird. I thought maybe we had missed the zombies coming through or something, but it seemed too clean.
ReplyDeleteCathy, it is so ugly, but people are so gullible. No clue that the evening news isn't news any more, it is just carefully massaged press releases from both camps.
***Why, thanks!
No doubt a struggling economy is a factor there, but I think the era of the mall is over.
ReplyDeleteWe have a similar ghost mall in a town nearby, well about 40 miles, but that is the nearest mall.
Only the too small old movie theater is keeping it alive.
Even the nonmall big box stores are struggling in an online shopping world.
To me, malls = high store rents = higher prices = I never go there anymore.
It's a little creepy, but Amazon has become my go to store for almost anything that would require a drive to a big city.
I might go to the mall if there WERE sled dog teams racing through the aisles.
FC, in my antiquity I can't remember which one, but one of the kids said the same thing when we were discussing this topic recently. Certainly the grocery stores don't show the same tendency...they are always mobbed to the point that it is hard to shop. It was sure a surprise to me to see the place that way though. guess I don't get out enough. And Amazon is such a fine temptation!
ReplyDeleteAnd they just expanded the big mall by me *rolls eyes* its going to be such a big money maker you know....
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