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Well the one good thing is that even though Wannamakers is now Macys - they still do the Christmas light and water show every year, even with the pipe organ. I was very happy to take my daughter there last year to see it There is something special about these grand old stores, especially around the holidays!
That's great news, I hope I can get back there one Christmas Season to see that.
Pardon me, is that a shopping district? Come on now, dont fool us. Insults are not needed to prove your point.
I don't know if you know this, but you don't have to be in an official shopping district in order to shop. There is shopping throughout downtown Orlando plus park ave. give it a rest DailyJournalist. Its sad.
I can remember when malls had more independently owned shops. Now they're mostly franchised and a mall in the middle of North Dakota will look exactly like a mall in the middle of Connecticut.
From my observation, many of the "downtown" shopping districts are looking more and more like malls each day. Same stores, same franchises.
I do more than half my shopping online now...no traffic, no driving in circles looking for parking, no lines.
Okay, so I want to know why are so many people against the malls these days and age? I suppose some people believe that malls kill downtowns, but it has to be more than that. I really enjoy malls and their food courts and walking around seeing all the different people. The only reason I can see people going downtown is for the bars, nightlife, and upscale shopping. Also, people are saying malls and strip malls is a conservative thing. How is that a conservative thing?
I don't like malls. I sometimes go to them, and I find them kind of interesting at times, but I much, much, much prefer to do my shopping in a "real" shopping district. I don't like that almost all malls are so auto-oriented, even the ones that have decent public transportation and walking connections. (and yes, there are the downtown malls, but in that case why bother?) I don't like that, for the most part, mall stores are dominated by national chains. I don't like that malls are so artificial in feeling; I think that saps some of the vitality that you find on a more traditional outside downtown or commercial district street. In malls most of the businesses are retail, with a few services or food options thrown in; in a downtown or neighborhood commercial district you're more likely to get a broader mix of uses in the same area. And while I agree that malls get a good mix of people, I still generally think the street life is more interesting and the people watching better in a more traditional shopping street. I do sometimes enjoy going to malls because they are such a part of American life (although I've been to malls in other countries, too), but since in general I try to spend my money at locally-owned, non-chain stores, malls just don't have as much to offer me.
I live in Minnesota, birthplace of Southdale, the first enclosed American mall, and it wasn't always that way. Even when I was a kid Southdale actually felt more like a true community gathering place. Steadily over the years the more public gathering places were eliminated and filled in with kiosks, while the benches reduced in number or made less pleasant. There even used to be a grocery store there -- long gone. Most malls don't seem to have much of a feeling of connection to the community, or a sense of place; you can set foot in malls in one city or town and it usually doesn't have anything so memorable to distinguish it from a mall in another town or region.
I would take a mall any day over a strip mall, though. I dislike malls, but I hate strip malls. They seem to be a concept designed to make shopping as unpleasant as possible. There's not even the attempts at being a (privately managed) community gathering place that there is at malls.
Maybe I've been to the wrong "lifestyle centers" but the ones I've been to were basically malls, but just outside. They were still surrounded by large parking lots. They were car oriented as they were in the middle of suburban areas with large highways. They still had the same type of mall stores. They did have better food selections, but at the end of the day they were still chain restaurants. The lifestyle centers I've been too looked like poor attempts to re create a village atmosphere.
You obviously have been to the wrong ones. Also newsflash, malls/centers are suburban so having roads, highways and parking lots will continue to be part of the equation as I'm thinking the concept wouldn't work so well in an urban center. My point is I'd rather have an outdoor pedestrian-oriented center versus a non-pedestrian oriented indoor center. To the other poster who said that lifestyle centers have more "expensive" stores, that's kind of the point. Rather than having crappy downmarket stores, wig shops and god knows what else, lifestyle centers tend to bring in nationally known upscale retailers that set the center apart from the dregs of the usual regional mall. It's called good marketing and attracts people who shop versus herds of teens, mallwalkers and those killing time. Here are some examples:
I dislike Malls myself and prefer downtowns/center cities. The OP should have added a poll!
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