Do You Go To Malls?

[Mr. DS]

I went to a mall today and started to think it had been awhile since my last visit.  I recall going to the mall a lot back in my college days when I had extra cash to blow.  I think family life has given me less to spend and I don't go as much for that reason.  That and its a bit of tease seeing so much for sale you want but you don't have the extra money to buy.  Best Buy did a number on me today in that department. How are your mall habits?

[Patient7]

I would, but I doubt I would find anything to do at the mall near me. 

[Ash]

I used to love going to the mall before they took out the arcades.
There were Tilt arcades in both malls here in town and my friends and I would hit them almost every day, zoning out to Mortal Kombat, Tekken 3, Street Fighter and Killer Instinct.
When they took them out, the malls seem to die to us.
We didn't just hang out at the arcades.  We'd hang out at the food court and scope out all the hot chicks...and there were many of them.     Daring each other to get a particular girl's phone number. We'd also have fun at Spencer Gifts playing with all the wacked out items they have for sale and looking at the posters of sexy women in the back of the store.

Ah...good times.  Good times.

Don't go there much anymore.  Just the occasional monthly visit to the bookstore in the mall or to get a new shirt or jeans at J.C. Penny or Younkers and that's about it.

[Shadow]

I went with Yes, but only to get what I need and get the hell out.

I've grown to truly hate the mall. More to the point, I get annoyed by the rude behaviour exhibited by so many of the people there. I find it best to just avoid the place except when absolutely necessary, and then I just go straight to the store (or stores) where I plan to buy something and then get the hell out of dodge.

[Psycho Circus]

Why are people so stoopid when they go shopping? Like, they just walk right into you and they've seen you coming!! Arrgh! 

Stooopid coffee stands all over the godamn place, fake plants that wack you in the eye! 

Arrgghh! Worst of all, malls/shopping centres do not cater to my needs! 

[Mr. DS]

Ash's commentary on arcades is very much true around here.  Arcades have shriveled up and to me thats a bit saddening.  One mall around here has a Dave & Busters which is good but pricey.

I used to frequent Spencer Gifts to buy collectibles and whatnot.  All of which are sitting in a box at my parent's house back home because I currently don't have the display room. 

Nowadays when I go to the mall, the wife goes into Old Navy amongst other stores.  I usually split and head off to Game Stop, Spencers or Best Buy.  It seems 98% of the stores in the mall I have no use for.   Come to think of it, most Best Buys and Game Stops are in plazas anyhow. 

[RCMerchant]

The nearest mall is about 25 miles away,in Kalamazoo (Yes...there really is a place,but I have no gal there.). I like to go about Christmas time to buy gifts. Otherwise...I don't go to malls. There is no mall culture in Van Buern County...because there are no malls.

[CheezeFlixz]

Nearest here is about 25 miles I go about once a year.

[AndyC]

I said only to get what I need and get out, which is pretty much the way I shop everywhere except hardware stores, surplus stores and electronics stores. But yeah, I used to like malls more in the past. I think with the explosion of big box retailers, the role of the mall has changed to where it doesn't have as much to offer me. I'll go more for a particular store than for the mall in general. These days, I've got about a 45-minute drive to either of the two closest malls, and neither has a lot of stores I want.

I've always enjoyed the food courts though. Only place I could get a jumbo chili, cheese and onion dog and a strawberry Julius.

I tend to agree that other mall customers, whether in cars outside or on foot inside, are a major deterrant. Most of them are OK, but there are so many who are just oblivious to the people around them. It's not that hard to stay aware of where you are in relation to everyone else and navigate your way through a crowd. But people in malls will stop suddenly in front of you, turn suddenly across your path, walk four abreast and expect other people to get out of the way, engage in conversations in front of doors or sales displays.

Normally, it's not a big deal, but I won't go near a mall from early November to mid-January. Too frustrating. I'll try to find gifts almost anywhere else. It used to especially bug me when I would just stop by the mall to grab some little thing I needed, and remember that Christmas shopping was in full swing. I'd wish I could get some special "non-combatant" status as someone just doing everyday shopping.

I hate crowds. I tend to get very frustrated in dense crowds, and when you add in long lineups, no parking spaces, a lot of traffic (something else I hate) and especially people being inconsiderate or just plain clueless, it's not long before I'm ready to hurt somebody. So, I try to just stay away from November to January.

[Zapranoth]

I'm a mission-oriented shopper, too.  What man isn't?   

In my day (I'm 37, today), the best arcades were the Pinball Pete's arcades in Lansing and the Aladdin's Castle arcades in the local malls.  I loved them both, for different reasons.  Pete's was a smoky, mildly dangerous or at least very seedy seeming joint, dark, very interesting selection of machines -- sort of buried underground, and a bit maze-like inside.  It had pop dispensers that would give you a paper cup full of pop for a quarter.   I would go there and play for 3 or 4 hours solid -- I would ride into town during the summer and play till I just had enough daylight to get home.  You could find slightly weird games there that you wouldn't see in your 7-11, games like "I, Robot," and "Mappy," and even an old Lunar Lander machine with the original throttle!  I played Mat Mania a ton there, too -- got to where I could play the game as long as I wanted to continue playing it, and I would see guys who could do the same with other games (including even Asteroids Deluxe).

Aladdin's, though, had that classic electric light glow to it, and that thunderous arcade mall noise.  You had to buy tokens, but the tokens were cool, they looked like little gold doubloons.  A bit more of a vanilla selection of games, but you could still find a sit-down Spy Hunter machine, a stand up Discs of Tron machine, and a Crossbow machine.     Nothing much beat playing a >300,000 point game of Spy Hunter in a sit-down machine, hearing the Peter Gunn theme blaring behind your head as you tried to keep the car on the road through the icy curves.

The arcade at my university was a good one, and it had good machines.  Had an in good condition Bubble Bobble machine (which my playing partner and I COULD BEAT on one credit each, thank you very much -- do you know anyone else who could do that?), and a good Rastan machine, Magic Sword,  and of course SF II and its variants.  Later, a Dark Stalkers machine... earlier, an Ataxx machine.

I loved going to the arcades more than anything else when I was a teenager.  I was a teenager in the golden age of arcades, when they were in ascendancy and before we had the hardware that we have at home, now.   That said, I just downloaded Robotron 2084 to my Xbox yesterday with some points I was given for my birthday, and that was a blast to play again on two joysticks.  =)   I'm going to be playing the hell out of that game again.  Got to get back to a Grunt wave, when you have to blast your way through about a hundred Grunts... awesome.

It was great to grow up in the 80's.  =)

[ghouck]

The closest mall is 120+ miles away, , we go to it just about every time we go to Anchorage, but less and less lately, except for school shopping. There's really nothing in it worth visiting, even though there's over 200 stores. There's a Best Buy, ,which is useless to me, a small, expensive hobby shop, ,also useless, a movie store that USED to be good, , now it's totally mainstream. The food court sucks, and there used to be 1 or 2 car dealerships in it, , none now. The Salsa shop was pretty much killed by a "soap and candle" store moving in next to it and stinking the place up so bad it was nauseating.

[Trevor]

I went to a mall today and started to think it had been awhile since my last visit.  I recall going to the mall a lot back in my college days when I had extra cash to blow.  I think family life has given me less to spend and I don't go as much for that reason.  That and its a bit of tease seeing so much for sale you want but you don't have the extra money to buy.  Best Buy did a number on me today in that department. How are your mall habits?

Mine are just to go there, get what I need and get home ~ I used to spend quite a while in malls when I was a student and could walk there without going  about a car that I didn't have.

The ones that see me are:

www.brooklynmall.co.za
www.hatfieldplaza.co.za (There is a great flea market here weekly)
www.menlynpark.co.za: This place has a sky high drive in theater ~ the view from up there is great in summer. 

[HappyGilmore]

I used to go a lot, like five/six years ago.

Lately I just go once every couple of months, walk around a bit, get the few things I need and go home.

[asimpson2006]

I usually only go to the mall for lunch when I work during the week since it's about 2 miles from my office.  If I'm not going for lunch I usually end up getting a video game or two then leave.  Other than that I pretty much stay away from the mall.

[Psycho Circus]

In the new mall in town near where I live, there was always these Greek women who kept stopping my girlfriend and wanted to put loads of weird make-up on her. They were really irritating as they were nice people, but they wouln't take no for an answer, so I ended up wasting a whole wad of cash on this cheap glitter crap.