shopping malls/lifestyle centers (Memphis, Knoxville: prices, food, best place)

[fafnir]

We've been permanent residents for 5 weeks now and are beginning to get our "bearings".
I took the wife to the JC mall the other day and found Sears to be a "B" store, and Penney's not much larger. Can anyone recommend a larger "mall" or "lifestyle center" where there are some larger
"anchor stores"? Thanks.

[Serious Conversation]

Johnson City is as good as it gets locally. If you want more, go to Knoxville TN or Greenville, SC. Shopping is not good in this area.

[Ted Bear]

What you saw is what you get in the Tri Cities.

I have to say that I NEVER go into the malls, so I am a bad sample size when it comes to judging them. I did walk through the JC Mall once to see what was in there. Nothing for me was/is the answer.

Try Asheville or Knoxville for something more substantial. I personally prefer the mom and pop stores for specific items, or shopping on line for most anything else.

And while we are bashing retail, you won't find a decent grocery store in the Tri Cities area either. It is an conundrum: food prices are higher than many other areas, and yet the chains put their worst stores here. Krogers is probably the best of the worst, and their two stores in JC are filthy dumps, to put it mildly. It doesn't add up to me, so we shop outside the area when we can.

BTW, Wegmans will be coming to Charlottesville, VA sometime in the next year or so. Hard to justify the trip, but if you are up that way anyhow, it is well worth it to do a major grocery shop.

[jabogitlu]

The Kroger near ETSU was always clean and well stocked, with a fair selection. The Krogers here in Memphis are (mostly) better, but that's a larger population.

Belk and JCPenney in the Johnson City mall are the cream of the crop in Tri-Cities shopping. If that's not suiting you, try West Town Mall in Knoxville or Haywood Mall in Greenville SC. The mall in Asheville, NC isn't too much different than the Johnson City mall.

[MetropolitanTN]

There are new lifestyle centers opening on I-81 near Bristol in the future.

Multimillion-dollar developers fighting for Interstate 81 retail supremacy

[BadJuju]

Woo, more stuff on the outskirts away from the actual cities. Hope they fail miserably.

[GentleWind]

With all this talk about food stores, what about the Earthfare in JC? Hoping this one is decent.

[Ashleigh15]

Hi,
Johnson City mall is the best mall and you get every thing you want. This is one of the best place for shopping.
Hopefully this helps you!