Subject Shopping Malls
Introduction This is a subject I would have never thought I’d be writing on, but since I have been going to shopping malls for over 30 years now I consider myself an expert and therefor am going to give my opinion, backed of course by several facts. I’ll divide my review into The Good and The Bad
The Good
1) The most obvious good thing about a shopping mall is the convenience. Where else can you go to get shoes, suits, toys, electronics, and ice cream all in the same place? Of course depending on how large your mall is there’s probably a lot more selections than that. My favorite mall has over 200 stores in. I have been going there for 30 years and never tire of the experience. Have I been to every store? Not even close. But someday I plan to do just that.
2) The next good thing about the mall, again depending on how big it is and how much property they own, is the parking. No, I haven’t counted the parking spaces but I am sure there are enough to seat everyone in Giants Stadium and then some. And if you go early enough you can get a parking spot right next to one of the front doors. There are very few times you won’t find a convenient parking spot, but that will be covered in THE BAD.
3) The next great thing about the mall are the hours. Where most local stores close at 6, the mall is usually open until 9 or even 10. That makes it so that people who work all day can go after dinner and have plenty of time to shop. This is the part I love since I am a night person.
4) The next great thing about the mall is the scenery. Yes, that’s what I said. Some malls are just gorgeous with plants and ponds and heaven knows what else right in the middle of the darn floor. Some have areas where you can sit and eat your take out. This is actually my favorite part of the mall experience. It is what separates the mall from all other places.
5) The rest rooms - They are usually very large. To not have a place to go you’d have to use one during the holiday season, but we’ll save that for the bad.
The Bad
1) Yes there is bad, and enough of it. The worst thing in my opinion is prices. Yes, you heard me correctly. What most of you may or may not know is this. Mall rent costs a fortune. Why? Simple. Malls are very attractive to customers(See The Good) and therefor the people who own the building can pretty much charge whatever they want to the poor fools who want to sell their wares there. So in return these poor fools have to pass on that heavy burden to us, the consumer. I won’t dump a ton of examples on you but here are a couple. A$6.99 action figure that you can buy in a discount department store for$5.99 costs$7.99 or even as much as$8.99 in a mall toy store. That’s a difference of as much as 33% between stores. Some things I just flat out won’t buy in a mall because of this. Where the price isn’t too much more I have to weigh the good and bad, in this case the convenience of going to one place. Another example is clothes. Clothes are the worst offenders in malls. A brand name blouse I can get in a discount department store for$19.99 can cost as much as$30 in the mall. I don’t buy clothes in the mall. If you do shop at one, do some price comparison before you shop.
2) The crowds - Especially during the holiday times the crowds can be insane and you can stand in one line for as much as a half hour waiting to check out. Imagine doing that in a half a dozen stores. This is why I make sure I either do my holiday shopping early or on line.
3) The parking - That same great parking is a nightmare during the holidays. If you don’t get there at opening time you may end up parking 2 to 3 blocks away from the store. I have been there and swore I would never do that again. This is a problem your discount department store doesn’t have because they just don’t have that many parking spaces so there is only so far you can walk, even if you are the last car in the lot.
4) The rest rooms - I remember one time when I was stupid enough to go during the worst shopping day of the year I needed the men’s room. Well, don’t ask. I was waiting for 10 minutes. Thank goodness I have great control. My advice to you is to go before you leave the house.
5) Inventory - The problem with going to the mall is each store because of size limitations can only carry so much stock. So if you’re going there looking for this super rare Exo 900 spreadsheet program you’re probably better off going to a specialty computer store with a big building or looking for it on line. I can’t tell you how many times I had a list of things I wanted for either myself or a gift and then I would get to the mall and none of the stores would have what I was looking for and I ended up having to go to a specialty store to get what I was looking for.
Summary - As you can see there is both good and bad at the mall. Some of you may or may not have had my experiences, either good or bad. But you can pretty much take my word for it, again depending on where you live, after 30 plus years of mall hopping I have seen it all and the above is pretty much what you can expect to get when you go to one. In either case, caveat emptor and happy shopping