Anyone been to the malls lately? Where's the sign(s) of this big, bad

[CatWoman]

ass booming economy?

I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, and drove by the mall on my way to work, and on my way home.

I didn't see an abundance of cars.

One of the security guards actually went there to pick up his lunch from the food court, and he told me that the place certainly wasn't crowded.

What gives?

Are there any large throngs of shoppers in your area??

[Demobrat]

1. I don't know about Friday

but Sunday in downtown San Francisco was dead. I walked into Macy's shoe department and got mobbed by bored sales people. I didn't see a lot of action in the high priced boutiques either, and I looked. I guess the action is all at Wal-Mart, and we don't have one of those.

[liberalhistorian]

2. No, certainly not in mine.

I'm in Northeast Ohio, which is rapidly going to hell in a handbasket economically, and none of my local malls were or are overly crowded at all.

[Options Remain]

5. credit cards and consumer idiocy

The first rush was very likely credit card expenditure. and the media is playing it up without taking a good look. to me black friday was more national debt day and I expect a study will find that most items were purchased with credit...

[supernova]

3. Busy on the weekend during the day

I had quite a little hike this past Saturday. But if I went out to the shiny new mall out on I-40 right now, I could have my pick of parking spaces. And this is a mall with accompanying movie theatre and restaurants where you can drink till your heart's content.

Usually if the economy is good around here, people pack the mall until very late. I don't see that happening around here.

[madrchsod]

4. walmart

maybe target. same with the stores in my little town..everyone`s over at the walmart

[pippin]

23. was at Target

Friday with grandlids (southern California suburb) and you could have rolled bowling balls as they say down the aisles.

[KayLaw]

6. I did

It was my first time shopping on Black Friday. I went with my father's girlfriend and her granddaughter. Really, no one thought it was crowded except at KayBee Toys which had a big sale. Between the three of us, we spent about a hundred and fifty dollars, and three items were for birthday gifts. It was nothing like I'd expected. I felt the prices were high and the crowds were low.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. Long Island is hopping

I went into Best Buy to purchase a CD and the line was to the back of the store.

But then again, this is Long Island, where there's a shopping mall for every third person and EVERYONE who lives here shops like crazy anyway.

[CatWoman]

9. and you didn't get ME anything????

HARumph!!!

:hi:

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. I looked Midori

But Victoria's Secret was out of the purple leather dominatrix outfit you wanted. :D

[CatWoman]

12. I prefer black

:P

[THUNDER HANDS]

14. you'll get purple and you'll LIKE IT

:evilgrin:

[supernova]

16. Pics!

We want pics! :7

[JewelDigger]

8. When I'm at the mall

I also pay attention to how many bags people are carrying...the people that I've been seeing are carrying very few and many are carrying none at all.

[supernova]

15. I noticed that too

there were a few shoppers with 1 or two bags. Then there was that true anomaly of a woman who bought 5 (5)?! of those table top optic mysting fountains (the ones that work with regular tap water, no dry ice.

It seemed to me that most people were milling around looking. But the TV/multi-media dept at Sears was hopping. Plenty of drooling at the Plasma and LED TeeVees.

[Jivenwail]

11. I had to go to the mall on Saturday

to pick up my new lenses and it was not busy at all. As matter of fact, I got a parking place only 3 spaces down from the front door of Dillard's. Amazing. And I had to go back again yesterday after work and it was dead as a doornail. The stores were empty and the sales clerks were milling around, talking to one another. This was around 5 PM and nobody was in that mall. I mean nobody.

I haven't heard how the stores around here did on Friday, only nationally that Wal-Mart set a new one-day record, etc. I also work next to one of the largest malls in the area and there's been no increase in traffic thus far and that's quite unusual.

[SnowGoose]

13. Something I noticed at Sears

I was waiting for my friend to finish in the rest room, and was indulging my A.D.D. to pass the time. Oddly, the store's day-by-day sales targets and figures (for this year and last year) were posted in the hallway for anyone to see... so I had a look.

Out of the last few months, the store (in a nicer part of the Greater Detroit Metro area) only had 2 or 3 days that matched or exceeded sales for the same day last year. And that doesn't really tell the story, most days were *much* lower than the same day last year, and well short of the target. It's clear that this particular store, at least, is not experiencing any kind of 'recovery'.

It's worth remembering that this is an n of 1, maybe this area is having a harder time relative to the rest of the country, or maybe people just have something against Sears, but I sorta doubt it.

[henslee]

17. Home Depot in Van Nuys, CA was amazingly not busy on Sunday at 11 am.

I needed to run in for a sec and was dreading it.... No problem parking or waiting on line, place is usually a zoo.

[boneygrey]

18. Raleigh Malls

We've been pretty lucky here given the condition of the economy nationwide. I didn't go to the mall, but the local paper reported a 20% increase in sales. Don't know their source so I don't know if it is accurate. Could have been just a one day thing.

[tarheel]

25. Yeah I would

be interested to know if that is a 20 percent increase over the same day last year, or is it 20 percent increase over the days immediately prior to "Black Friday".

Here in the south the day after Thanksgiving is like a regional holiday for Christmas shopping, but my wife said she spoke, with someone from San Francisco, while shopping last Friday, and they said that people there do not practice this particular phenomenon.

[Beaker]

19. Best Buy in Chicago. saturday afternoon

(Evanston, actually)...they had used stacks of dvd players, and those stanchions with straps that have replaced the velvet ropes, to help corrall the teeming masses to the checkout lanes...BUT- there were no customers in line- at about 1:30 in the afters, and the only line was at the returns counter.

[frylock]

20. i had to work friday as well.

and drove past five large malls here in San Diego. It was a joke! I can remember from years past when the freeways around the malls would be stopped dead from all the shopping traffic. Now you can find a parking space, no problemo. Can't wait till the numbers are released after xmas, so they can debunk this economic recovery BS.

[damnraddem]

21. Nope. I was at the mall with family, and it was underpacked ...

for a day after T-Giving. It's not a surprise, given the number of new layoffs, not to mention the high unemployment. This 'booming economy' is not helping most of us. The corporations never seem to learn: if everyone cuts back on labor costs, there is no market for goods.

[spinbaby]

22. I stopped by the mall at lunch today

It was definitely busier but not yet approaching Christmas-season busy. I picked up something in an almost deserted Sears store and then had to wait a long time at the register because they only had one register open on the whole floor. One of the two cashiers manning this register had on a "trainee" tag and didn't seem to function yet at all, needing a lot of attention from the other cashier. A lot of stores seem to have inadequate staffing this year. I guess that saves on labor costs and makes the store look busy because people are backed up at the register.

[KensPen]

24. I went to the Freehold Mall (NJ)

on saturday...
I didn't go early and was able to park real close to the door....

It was scarey how empty the place was.

[name not needed]

26. bridgewater mall

packed! every damn store in town had a line out the door!

[Maeve]

27. Survey the parking lots

I've been doing this informally the past couple of years--compare the lot at the mall to the lot at K-Mart, Wal-Mart and other discounters. The malls have been losing out. Folks are spending their cash down-scale.

As a side note--Family Dollar and Dollar General Stores are doing well, too. That really doesn't bode well.

[CatWoman]

29. While that is very true Maeve

what are people going to do, and where are they going to shop when trying to make ends meet?

[3rdParty]

28. NJ Outlets

Not sure about the malls in NJ but at the outlets in Freehold had to wait on a 1/2 hr line just to get in the store and then a 1hr+ line at the register. (From Black Friday)

I think people are spending BUT they are looking for the 30%+ off sales and deals that they saw last Christmas.

[buddhamama]

30. the peoples are afraid

it is afterall a big bad ass economy :scared:


haven't been to a mall but, i have heard that people are looking more than actually buying.

[kath]

31. Saturday around noon, mall in OKC seemed quite empty