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Eye-Opening Hour at the Mall...Depressing...[vanity]

Posted on 04/05/2009 10:25:40 PM PDT by TruthHound

Haven't walked through the Del Amo Fashion Center in a few months, but the wife needed an eye exam, so I went to drop her off at Pearle Vision and take the kids for Dippin Dots.

Well, there's no more Pearle Vision. They've been bought out by LensCrafters. Them's the breaks.

Del Amo's a huge mall. Dippin Dots is quite a haul from the eye doctor, And I couldn't help but notice that about every third store was shuttered up. Many left were having closing sales--everything must go.

We get to Dippin Dots and...well that's where it used to be. Now a white plywood box with a lease sign on it. No Dairy Queen, either. McDonalds is gone, too. No Ice Cream for us today.

Headed back to the wife and noticed that there were actually a lot of people there. Probably not as many as I'd seen before, but a fair amount. What was missing, though, was bags. No one was overloaded with bags of product. Only a handful were actually buying anything.

So we stopped at the Aahs! for giggles. And waddya think was the big display? Three islands in the entrance of THE MESSIAH! "Yes we did!" the t-shirts and posters proclaimed. There were books, buttons, neon signs, baseball caps, hooded jackets--all emblazoned with the mug of Øbama. They didn't even have a Christmas display that big back in December.

And I stood there in front of Aahs! and slowly turned in a complete circle. I counted 14...I SAID FOURTEEN...stores within eyesight of that outlet that had been shut down...closed....gone forever.

And when I finally came full circle, there I was again staring at the alter to his highness...Mocking me. Yes we did.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Local News
KEYWORDS: mall; malls

1 posted on 04/05/2009 10:25:40 PM PDT by TruthHound
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To: Partisan Hack

LA dead mall ping?


2 posted on 04/05/2009 10:31:29 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Mr. Bernanke, have you started working on your book about the second GREATER depression?")
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To: TruthHound

Del Amo Center? Is that the one in Lakewood on Del Amo Bl.?


3 posted on 04/05/2009 10:32:01 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...Call 'em What you Will, They ALL have Fairies Living In Their Trees.)
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To: rockinqsranch

Torrance.


4 posted on 04/05/2009 10:33:35 PM PDT by TruthHound (ANY)
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To: TruthHound

i believe this was in Torrance, CA, just outside LA, right?

and if you think that’s bad... just wait until the fall, i mean october. the dead cat bounce will be over within a week or so and by june 1 we could be approaching 6000 again. i figure we may pass 4500 by october. and by this time next year?

you’ll be praying for the days of jimmy carter.

and yes... they did... loot and fleece the US of trillions of dollars to offshore corporations and entities... all while ‘helping’ the US economy.

of course, like all democrat statements... you have to understand that you never hear the full statement.

they we ‘helping’ the US economy... fail completely.


5 posted on 04/05/2009 10:35:58 PM PDT by sten
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To: TruthHound

The loss of discretionary income the past few years is having its effect. That’s why I predicted all these small malls that popped up in the last decade will look like ghost towns by Spring, 2010. All of a sudden I started seeing them everywhere, often with even a Best Buy and other normally solid stores. A lot of businesses are going to decide they cannot run that many locations and close the ones with the lowest revenue.

You’re correct that some of them are still trying to make money on those who worship Obama. However, I notice that his plates don’t seem to sell too well in the Midwest in many areas. At a local 7-11 his junk was on the table they use to get rid of stuff that won’t sell unless 50% off or more.


6 posted on 04/05/2009 10:36:45 PM PDT by F15Eagle (1 John 5:4-5, 4:15, John 11:25, 14:6, 1 Tim 2:5, John 3:17-18, John 20:31, 1 John 5:13, John 6:69)
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To: TruthHound

Don’t worry, they will soon be filled with re-education camps!


7 posted on 04/05/2009 10:40:33 PM PDT by Mr. K (physically unable to proofreed (<---oops))
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To: TruthHound

I stayed at a Courtyard hotel next to the 405 in Torrance, around 1996 or so. Didn’t get over to the In and Out Burger though.


8 posted on 04/05/2009 10:40:50 PM PDT by F15Eagle (1 John 5:4-5, 4:15, John 11:25, 14:6, 1 Tim 2:5, John 3:17-18, John 20:31, 1 John 5:13, John 6:69)
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To: TruthHound

OK Thanks.

Was curious. Grew up in Long Beach. Torrance wasn’t one of the areas I knew well, but my wife lived in Torrance a number of years as a child.

I’ll pass this on to her in the morning. She liked Torrance as I recall, but then she would have lived there in the 1950’s, then moved to Huntington Park.


9 posted on 04/05/2009 10:41:08 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...Call 'em What you Will, They ALL have Fairies Living In Their Trees.)
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To: TruthHound
Another center-of-the-universe post.
That's near the Arkansas border, isn't it?
10 posted on 04/05/2009 10:43:42 PM PDT by Publius6961 (Change is not a plan; Hope is not a strategy.)
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To: TruthHound

Nice post. Our malls are having way too many sales - and too few customers. It’s odd.


11 posted on 04/05/2009 10:45:42 PM PDT by GOPJ (The Queen gave Obama a signed photograph. What did she give President Bush?)
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To: Publius6961

Del Amo Fashion Center is a two-level regional shopping mall in Torrance, California, USA. It is currently managed and co-owned by Simon Property Group.
With a current gross leasable area (GLA) of 3.0 million ft², it is one of the largest shopping malls in the United States. The mall features three food courts, seven anchors stores, including three Macy’s locations, JCPenney & Sears, more than 300 retailers, multiple full-service restaurants, a new fitness center and a new AMC Theatres multiplex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Amo_Fashion_Center


12 posted on 04/05/2009 10:49:20 PM PDT by TruthHound (ANY)
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To: F15Eagle
You’re correct that some of them are still trying to make money on those who worship Obama. However, I notice that his plates don’t seem to sell too well in the Midwest in many areas. At a local 7-11 his junk was on the table they use to get rid of stuff that won’t sell unless 50% off or more.

I'm always willing to do my part for Obama purchases. When I see books and magazines with his mug on them, I turn them around. If his mug is on the back also, it gets turned upside down.

13 posted on 04/05/2009 10:58:57 PM PDT by mountn man (The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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To: mountn man

Good for you! :)


14 posted on 04/05/2009 11:03:51 PM PDT by diamond6 (Is SIDS preventable? www.Stopsidsnow.com)
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To: TruthHound

Went to the mall today too...know what for???

The Hakky shoe repair guy. Yes, that little oriental guy is the only man making any money right now at the mall. He was busy with a boatload of (expensive)mens shoes to fix. No one is buying - everyone is fixing...and Mr Hakky Shoeman is laughing all the way to the bank and living the American Dream.


15 posted on 04/05/2009 11:07:51 PM PDT by HomeschoolMomma (Partying like its 1773!)
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To: mountn man

Excellent. I can’t imagine the folks who sit around admiring those plates and all that junk. Or worse and actually spent money on the stuff.

All that stuff is going to wind up in the trash or at flea markets trying to find one more sucker.


16 posted on 04/05/2009 11:07:54 PM PDT by F15Eagle (1 John 5:4-5, 4:15, John 11:25, 14:6, 1 Tim 2:5, John 3:17-18, John 20:31, 1 John 5:13, John 6:69)
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To: Mr. K

Yup they will be future acorn sites.


17 posted on 04/05/2009 11:29:41 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: TruthHound

Actually, the indoor malls are all falling by the wayside. Take a look at Deadmalls.com and count how many indoor shopping centers are drying up and dying out.

One trend I’ve noticed for a while is the appearance of outdoor shopping venues. An upscale shopping center based on some European/Italian theme just opened a few miles from where I live, and it’s really taken a chunk out of the indoor mall that’s just a couple of miles up the road.


18 posted on 04/05/2009 11:43:18 PM PDT by The Breaded Fish
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To: The Breaded Fish

I go to sears to buy some tools occasionally. The internet and any out of kalifornica state, to buy what I need. If I don’t have to give terminating kalifornica’s economy gov any help, I won’t!


19 posted on 04/05/2009 11:53:57 PM PDT by US_MilitaryRules ("We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots)
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To: TruthHound

Pearle Vision, LensCrafters, Sears Optical and Target Optical (and many others such as Rayban, EyeMed, etc..) are all the same company — Luxottica, and have been for about 5+ years, at least: Mrs. 2ndDivisionVet is a manager with Sears Optical. So what they probably did was convert a Pearle into a LensCrafters.


20 posted on 04/05/2009 11:54:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (In honor of my late father-Gysgt/Comm. Chief, USMC WWII, Korea 1925-2002)
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To: GOPJ
Same thing in Thailand with their recession/depression of about 12 years ago. Everything on sale in and around Bangkok, things at incredible discount bargains, and yet people walking around listless with not a shopping bag in sight, electricity turned off, boarded up buildings, A/C not running, vagrants just hanging around with free time looking for an opportunity to lift a wallet from someone's back pocket, etc. etc.

One thing we should never say in life is "it can't happen here" just because we are America or Americans.

21 posted on 04/06/2009 12:08:26 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (We live in interesting times.)
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To: TruthHound

bookmark


22 posted on 04/06/2009 12:39:39 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: TruthHound

I didn’t know there was anything left at that mall.


23 posted on 04/06/2009 1:06:47 AM PDT by Califreak (111th Congress: Destroying America With Reckless Abandon)
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To: The Breaded Fish
One trend I’ve noticed for a while is the appearance of outdoor shopping venues. An upscale shopping center based on some European/Italian theme just opened a few miles from where I live, and it’s really taken a chunk out of the indoor mall that’s just a couple of miles up the road.

Fear of gangbangers, maybe?

Also the cost of heating and cooling large indoor spaces.

I believe there have also been some court cases that have degraded the property rights of mall owners. They are now "public places," where protest groups have to be allowed to operate.

24 posted on 04/06/2009 1:54:59 AM PDT by Steely Tom (RKBA: last line of defense against vote fraud)
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To: The Breaded Fish

“Actually, the indoor malls are all falling by the wayside. Take a look at Deadmalls.com and count how many indoor shopping centers are drying up and dying out.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Yup. Same in my neck of the woods. Indoor malls have been dying out for years. It’s not a new phenomenon.


25 posted on 04/06/2009 2:12:51 AM PDT by sinanju
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To: TruthHound

So in this case, the devastation has all happened in the last few months?

You’re sure you’ve been there before just a few months back?


26 posted on 04/06/2009 2:14:27 AM PDT by sinanju
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To: TruthHound

Oh my Gaw-w-w-w-d! This is where they filmed the mall scenes in the early eighties classic “Valley Girl”, young Nick Cage’s breakout role.

Someone call the WhiteHouse! This must be declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and preserved in amber at all costs!


27 posted on 04/06/2009 2:23:25 AM PDT by sinanju
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To: AmericanInTokyo

I agree - it can happen here - and with blinding speed if we’re not careful.


28 posted on 04/06/2009 1:11:09 PM PDT by GOPJ (The Queen gave Obama a signed photograph. What did she give President Bush?)
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To: The Breaded Fish
"...Actually, the indoor malls are all falling by the wayside..."

FRiend, you may well have identified an emerging trend. However, I live in the South, and in the Summer, early Fall, and late Spring there is nothing more oppressive than "that infernal Texas Sun" (I paraphrase Robespierre). Just traversing the parking lot is an epic feat.

My native-Texan wife tells me to stop being such a crybaby, but at the same time calls the heat "God's Flamethrower".

God made AC, and it was good.

29 posted on 04/06/2009 1:51:52 PM PDT by I Buried My Guns (I just hope CW2 comes before my creaky knees give out completely!)
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To: sinanju
"...the early eighties classic “Valley Girl”..."

Best.

Movie Soundtrack.

Ever.

30 posted on 04/06/2009 1:54:11 PM PDT by I Buried My Guns (I just hope CW2 comes before my creaky knees give out completely!)
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To: I Buried My Guns

Some of us are still waiting for the original Modern English to reunite.


31 posted on 04/06/2009 2:03:37 PM PDT by Knitebane (Happily Microsoft free since 1999.)
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