re: Shopping Malls Do you miss them....some?

I do miss them in their proper form. I’ll just stink if cheap skunk weed if I go now

Me, not so much. There's still Lakeside Mall in Metairie off Causeway Blvd. but I really can't remember the last time I shopped there. I know for sure it's been several years at least.

When I was a much younger man and had little kids, a lot bigger social circle and relatives living nearby, it was convenient for gift shopping with all the different stores in one area.

Now, with family and some friends either dead or spread out over several states since Katrina, I really don't do much in the way of shopping for gifts.

Now, grocery stores are a different matter............

Belle Promenade was fantastic in the 80’s and early 90’s.

quote:

---

That’s what killed malls, at least in Birmingham.

---

It was similar in Montgomery. Montgomery Mall re-opened after renovations in 1988 and became the upscale mall in town with things like American Eagle, the Gap, Victoria’s Secret, and the Disney Store. One of its anchors was Parisian, which was considered an upscale department store. This spawned a whole wave of investment in the surrounding blocks. Pier 1 built a standalone store across the street. New shopping centers were built on two sides of the mall property. Upscale fast casual eateries were put up, along a new 10 screen theater and the nicest Barnes and Noble superstore I've ever seen. All of this was in place by 1999.

By 2009, almost all of it was gone. Less than ten years, and all that investment down the drain. Why?

Because demographics is destiny. And the West side of Montgomery… gritty and crime ridden…was growing in population, and was close to Montgomery Mall, only a five minute drive. And the Youts set their sights on the Mall. The teenager led to the gangbanger led to the shooting. My wife worked there when the first shooting happened in the late 90’s. That was the beggining of the end. The Gap left in 2002, and all the classy stores followed in the next 3 years. By 2008, the Mall closed.

The city and investors tried to build a bastion against decay. But their investment tantalized Cultcha, and attracted them like ants to a picnic.

I went to the mall today.

Wanted to shop the after Christmas sales that were going on and Palmetto Moon and Altr'd State are there. Those stores are much better in person than online.

I miss being of an age when the idea of hanging out in a mall didn't make me want to break out in nervous hives. That's what I miss.

If only we’d known, take your video camera or disposable and create video and photo journals. Those things get all sorts of hits on YouTube.

The older I get, the more nostalgic I get, and the more I wish I had pictures or videos of. It’s weird.

quote:

---

Now that’s a place I wish I could take my kids back in time to. A department store devoted to just toys.

---

I can at least say I took my son to a toys r us when he was 2 and they were liquidating. Too bad he will never remember it.

I miss grandma taking me to the mall for ice cream and buying clothes and getting a haircut. I was a grandmas boy