What was UTC Mall area like on Black Friday?

[PBToast]

Update for Post Christmas (just because I want to, LOL). We had to pick someone up at the Sarasota airport the night of Nov. 12 and had no idea Santa was arriving at the UTC Mall with a parade of fire trucks and fire works. The crowd was beyond comprehension and all the traffic on University was at a dead stand still. People were parking across the street at the Target and walking across 8 lanes of traffic while we all sat there dragging coolers and children and carrying beach chairs?! We were sitting there in stunned disbelief (totally in the dark).

Had to go there for the Michael's last spring (April? May?) for a frame as they had the size I needed in store while Port Charlotte did not. It was jammed! We circled for a parking spot 2x, and waited outside 30 minutes to have lunch at Ford's. AFTER the snowbirds had left. It's locals and families in there. All the time as far as I can see!

Fast Forward to My Latest Great Decision...I went the day after Christmas!!! Packed again. No parking everyone circling. Walked the whole length of the mall pushing through crowds. Hint: it's faster to walk the upper level. The play area was FULL of children. Dillard's and Macy's were ransacked. Nothing left. People were buying, everyone was carrying bags. The lines at Starbucks, Cinnabon and the pizza place wrapped around. (This mall has no food court). It's totally like being at a mall back in the 70's or 80's when they were new and exciting. Like time travel!



Went to Edison mall in Fort Myers a couple days later and it looked like any other mostly deserted mall. People shopping but plenty of parking. Also plenty of Christmas stuff left in Dillard's to choose from. UTC is really a phenomenon all to itself. And they are moving Mote there!

[beach43ofus]

Thx for the report PB! You have bad timing it sounds like. I've never seen UTC Mall crowded at all.

I hope they add parking on the Mall side of road so people are not crossing 8 lanes next year.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by PBToast

Update for Post Christmas (just because I want to, LOL). We had to pick someone up at the Sarasota airport the night of Nov. 12 and had no idea Santa was arriving at the UTC Mall with a parade of fire trucks and fire works. The crowd was beyond comprehension and all the traffic on University was at a dead stand still. People were parking across the street at the Target and walking across 8 lanes of traffic while we all sat there dragging coolers and children and carrying beach chairs?! We were sitting there in stunned disbelief (totally in the dark).

Had to go there for the Michael's last spring (April? May?) for a frame as they had the size I needed in store while Port Charlotte did not. It was jammed! We circled for a parking spot 2x, and waited outside 30 minutes to have lunch at Ford's. AFTER the snowbirds had left. It's locals and families in there. All the time as far as I can see!

Fast Forward to My Latest Great Decision...I went the day after Christmas!!! Packed again. No parking everyone circling. Walked the whole length of the mall pushing through crowds. Hint: it's faster to walk the upper level. The play area was FULL of children. Dillard's and Macy's were ransacked. Nothing left. People were buying, everyone was carrying bags. The lines at Starbucks, Cinnabon and the pizza place wrapped around. (This mall has no food court). It's totally like being at a mall back in the 70's or 80's when they were new and exciting. Like time travel!



Went to Edison mall in Fort Myers a couple days later and it looked like any other mostly deserted mall. People shopping but plenty of parking. Also plenty of Christmas stuff left in Dillard's to choose from. UTC is really a phenomenon all to itself. And they are moving Mote there!

People from the Tampa area drive to UTC mall, even as far as Pasco County. Tampa area malls like Tampa Premium Outlets which I was last there last summer sucked. Vacant stores and not a good selection. UTC is probably the only decent mall left from Tampa on down to Naples.

Miramar Outlet I went to in early Dec and it wasn't very busy at all. When that first opened that was a great mall! I remember the days before Miramar mall opened, like the mid 1990s the Edison mall was the greatest mall in the area. Remember the Metro Mall in Ft. Myers too? With Sanibel Outlets trashed I'd figure Miramar would be a lot busier and it wasnt. I like Miramar because they have the Nike store, Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren outlet stores there.

Their prices are like 40 percent cheaper than Macy's or Dillards for the EXACT same shirts. I really have no use for regular malls anymore when the outlet has the same stuff far cheaper.

There really won't be a lot of malls left south of UTC eventually when the likes of Sarasota Square, Siesta Key, Port Charlotte Town Center, and Edison mall eventually close.

Port Charlotte Town Center they're supposed to redesign it and add apartments to it and make it mixed used. If so it probably will be like a big strip mall and not your typical mall stores.

A vendor at the market has a shop at Edison and said business has slowed down there post Christmas a lot!

All you will have left in Sarasota and Manatee Counties is UTC and the Palmetto outlet mall eventually when the other two close. UTC put the hurt on all the other local malls when it opened up 10 years ago.

gettign to the point eventually you will just have a few really good malls like UTC for example left and the others will close thanks to online shopping. You won't see as many malls anymore because they're not needed.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Thx for the report PB! You have bad timing it sounds like. I've never seen UTC Mall crowded at all.

I hope they add parking on the Mall side of road so people are not crossing 8 lanes next year.

Btw I went to UTC mall a couple times and TBH I really wasn't impressed! Maybe because I'm 39 and they market it to the older crowds due to older demographics, I dunno. But being in Punta Gorda I would not drive 55 miles for it. Wasn't impressed at all with the shop selection in there.

I can drive 40 miles to Miramar outlet and they have the same brand names Macy's does. Yes, on the outside the mall looks like a palace, but just wasn't impressed with the shops.

[beachmouse]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I agree with retailers not having their stores properly stocked...frustrating driving 40 minutes to find the item you went there to buy isn't there. "Just-in-time" inventory systems just don't work.

Good luck trying to call in advance to insure they have stock, unless its a small store...big boxes forget about the phone, & getting them to visually check to see the item on the shelf...they check their online inventory system, which is often wrong.

Best Buy can be pretty decent for checking online inventory and then having them pull items for in-store pick-up. Same goes for the Apple Store. But other places like Target are nowhere close to online inventory matching what’s in the store.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by beachmouse

Best Buy can be pretty decent for checking online inventory and then having them pull items for in-store pick-up. Same goes for the Apple Store. But other places like Target are nowhere close to online inventory matching what’s in the store.

My beef is with Best Buy they carry only a few of each computer or item in stock! One by me is always out of stock or low on stock.

[1rainman]

Port Charlotte mall is surprisingly busy. Not super busy but there's so many people here with no place to go. But besides most stores being closed the movie theatre only shows a few movies now unlike before COVID. And the new movies coming out mostly suck. The clothing stores rarely have nice clothes anymore. No nice kalvin Klein shirts or anything. Just over priced t shirts and blue jeans you can get cheaper at Walmart. And the music store never has new movies or DVDs or new headphones or portable DVD players. Just occasionally some new used DVDs and new over priced t shirts.

These businesses are killing themselves then blaming Amazon. The shoppers are there but they just don't have much worth buying anymore.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by 1rainman

Port Charlotte mall is surprisingly busy. Not super busy but there's so many people here with no place to go. But besides most stores being closed the movie theatre only shows a few movies now unlike before COVID. And the new movies coming out mostly suck. The clothing stores rarely have nice clothes anymore. No nice kalvin Klein shirts or anything. Just over priced t shirts and blue jeans you can get cheaper at Walmart. And the music store never has new movies or DVDs or new headphones or portable DVD players. Just occasionally some new used DVDs and new over priced t shirts.

These businesses are killing themselves then blaming Amazon. The shoppers are there but they just don't have much worth buying anymore.

I'm shocked. LAst time I was there 2 weeks ago on a weekday it was DEAD before Christmas. Dan Bell should do a dead mall series on it. But the mall is soooo small not much to show.

Anyway you're correct about stores being closed AND clothing stores not carrying good stuff. The stuff they do carry is like size 42 waist pants. Rack Room Shoes is the only decent store in that mall now. JCpenny doesn't carry stuff like they used to and Dillards is too high priced.

I go to Miramar outlets. Their Nike store has better prices than even Rack Room and bigger selection and Polo Sport store is 50 percent cheaper than Macy's or Dillards for the same shirts! Even Miramar is pretty dead too though the last few years. Usually college students milling around and tourists mixed in. I figured with Sanibel outlets being closed due to Ian that Miramar would be slammed, but it wasn't.

TBH even UTC mall doesn't impress me when I went to it. It looks all nice on the outside and nice inside but again hardly any of the stores appealed to me. Macy's had a bigger selection. The Macys at UTC reminds me of the big Macys up at West County Mall in St. Louis. Selection is there but why would I buy a $80 shirt at Macy's when I can go up the road to the Palmetto Mall or Miramar and buy the same shirt for $45 at the Polo Sport or Hilfiger outlet??

Most Florida malls SUCK though. Like up in St. Louis people said South County mall was the crappy mall but they blow most of the remaining malls here in SWFL away.

Port Charlotte Mall is a waste of time. Not worth the crappy 41 traffic to trek there to begin with.