Seen At A Local Mall

Nothing. No problem parking, no crowds, no lines to checkout, in fact in some stores no people at all.

That's right, not much of anything as far as people at the local mall. Here it is, 2 weeks until Christmas and the local mall was essentially empty. I was there around 1:00 this afternoon and there weren't any more people there than I would expect to see on any wednesday afternoon in July.

I understand that many small retailers make a large portion of their total annual sales over the holiday season. If that's the case I would have to say that despite all the rosy crap on the news there seems to be a very real problem in paradise.

How is it where you are?

No long lines, some stores fairly crowded but no overflowing carts. Even the Walmart wasn't doing too well from what I could see.

I mean most of the stores have moved out. I think there are maybe three middle sized stores, three small stores, two restaurants (one caters to mall walkers), and the military recruiting offices. I haven't seen many people there at all. The number of shoppers in the mom and pop stores downtown seem to be about the same as it always is, definately not more than usual. The parking lot at WalMart isn't packed, either.

getting my hair done. I was dreading getting near the mall because of the typically large crowds but it wasn't bad here. My husband heard on the radio yesterday that sales are way down from last year at this time.

we have snow on the ground, perhaps 3-4 inches....so as far as our Mall scene, i dont know....
however, this past weekend, the Malls here seemed slow.

center near me this am.

However, it is bitter cold here! 12 degrees below normal.

It was quite crowded on Monday.

I started thinking about the mall parking lots, none of them looked overly full yesterday.

Needless to say, they're packing the malls.

Welcome to the New Gilded Age.

:sarcasm:

in the same way he's winning in Iraq: a slow drawn out defeat which he refuses to acknowledge is happening.

The malls still have a place, but I think most of them are overcharging their tenants on rent at this point...

As for this Xmas season being better or worse than others, It's hard to say, but people I know in this area (SF bay area) say it's pretty slow.

Personally, I can't stand going to a mall during any time of the year.

the kind of drastic reductions that generally happen only after Xmas. No better indication could be seen that X-mas is sucking this year (besides a review of actual receipts, which aren't available to us).

Broke my coffee pot, had to get a new one. Empty parking lot, empty store, no lines whatsoever.

Thank God/dess for the recovering economy or I'd really be worried! :sarcasm:

for this close to Christmas. I definitely agree with your assessment, ThomWV.