Remember I live in a small city of about 80,000. We have a lot of smaller malls about town. We also have a regional mall. It is somewhat typical; [don't remember the exact numbers] one building, 165 stores including 4 large anchors and 158 stores selling women's clothing. :)

Just saw plans for yet another mall. It will cover a large area. It will have a couple of anchor stores, lots of smaller stores, condo's, a hotel and a conference center. Difference is that each will be in a separate building and they will we spread throughout a large park, with hiking trails, nature areas, lakes and picnic areas,etc. They intend to fit it into the existing forest. It will be pedestrian and bicycle dependent. I travel alot, but I, must admit, I don't look at malls very much.

Do you have something like this; and does it work? Good to be home for two weeks.

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Answers

Z,

The Galleria here in B'ham doesn't have the nature-trail stuff, but there is a hotel on site for True Powershoppers. Yes, it's my understanding that some people actually travel into B'ham, take a room at the hotel, and then shop until they drop, at which point they head back home.

I'm a small-town boy myself, so this strikes me as a bit odd, too, but hey; to each his own. :)

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Poole:

Yeah: I live about 25 min from town. The town is pretty wealthy; all of Sam's kids moved back here when he died. You can go downtown and buy an F100 or a Lambo off of the lot. They are talking in the hundreds of acres range. Just wondered if other places had something like this.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

What you've described, Z, is kind of like stuff they've been doing in NYC for a while now. There are two that come to mind -- the Fulton Street Mall in lower Manhattan and ... the Fulton Street Mall in Downtown Brooklyn. (One of those names is wrong; the mind is the first thing to go.)

The only difference is that there aren't any parks associated with them. And in the Brooklyn one, traffic is allowed through at certain times of the day (buses are always allowed). It's a nice idea for an urban setting, but I can't picture a population of 80,000 constituting an "urban setting". Must be nice :-)

But "malls"? I live in a damn CITY of malls. Everywhere you look - a strip mall here, a regular mall there, a tourist mall off the Strip.

Shoot me.

One of the things I miss most about NYC is the little shops that can be found EVERYWHERE. The little grocery stores, the wine shops, the delis, the cheese shops, the boutiques, the shoe store with the guy who actually measures your foot and goes in the back to get the box. (Well, OK, there is actually one of those here -- in a damn MALL.) I have to go to a [expletive deleted] SUPER store to get anything any more.

If I had some money, I'd open a boutique or something. Do you know I can't even find natural fabric clothes anywhere in this place? We live in the [expletive deleted] DESERT for crying out loud and the clothes are all plastic (e.g., nylon-type things that one does NOT want to wear when it's 100+ degrees out).

(Well, no one with a measurable IQ anyway.)

Even in the bigger-name stores (e.g., Nordstrom's, Dillard's, etc.) it's the same thing. And if you DO find any cottons or linens, you have to take out a second mortgage to BUY it.

Ugh.

(Hmmm.....that was a rant, wasn't it? Could it be ..... is it possible ..... am I back? LOL. I've been having hell weeks at work lately; this has probably been building. Uh oh.....)

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2001

Patrica:

What they have is a picture of little shops spread out through forests and fields. The idea [so they say] is to create a more friendly shopping experience [hehe]. They plan to open by 2003. From the plans, they are partly in town and partly in the county. That means two planning and zoning commisions. So I doubt the date.

I am a skeptic about these things. I will wait and see.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2001

I luv malls. They are so kewl. it's where all the kidz hang out and hook up. We talk about music and stuff and clothes and stuff and sex and stuff and hair and stuff and score X.

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2001

Z,

It's a great idea, though ... be really interesting to see if it pays off. If that area is one with lots of cash rustling in wallets, then it may do just that.

What's different is that you've got all that stuff together in one place, but I can't say it's a completely new idea. For example, we also have a couple of little yuppie/tinker shopping "villages" around here. Absolutely delightful; the little shops are done Tudor style, the streetlamps look like gaslights, cobblestone streets, that sort of thing. Now THAT seems to work here.

Who knows?

Actually, I hope that mall DOES work, because it'd be a refreshing change from the utilitarian-looking concrete and steel megashoppers that usually get built nowdays. Success breeds imitations.

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2001

Nature areas, hiking trails, park to not fit with shopping. Shopping is cement and litter and parking lots. Soundslike the planners need a reality slap.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001