[Gay State Conservative]

I live in a small suburb which,curiously,is the home of a large,"upscale",mall. Louis Vitton,Gucci,Nordstrom and other upscale women's apparel stores are featured. Our town,a middle class one,is surrounded on three sides by affluent Tesla,Porsche towns.

Even there I see many empty storefronts...so many that I wonder how it remains in operation. The only times I go there are in bad weather because it's a great place for 'mall walkers".

[Chickensoup]

Everytime I visit a friend in Connecticut we go to the local big deal mall. He says the place is thriving and doing well.

Each ti.e I am there I see the downgrade in kinds of retailers and a real change in the types of shoppers.