What Are Your Favorite Mall Stores?
Get in loser, we’re going to the mall.
Image via H. ARMSTRONG ROBERTS/CLASSICSTOCK//GETTY IMAGES
On Sunday, I luxuriated in a long, lazy day at home. It was great! I was bored! Whatta feeling.
Anyway, I was bouncing around the internet doing some online shopping, or at least window shopping, and I thought, man I wish I there was one place I could just buy things from all my favorite stores at once. And it occurred me, lady, you are thinking of the mall.
Malls! Oh my goodness, such a positive memory for me. I grew up in the heyday of mall culture, in which we’d regularly make a day of it. Ours was sufficiently large enough to chew up an entire afternoon, bookended by meals in the foodcourt. You’d always run into someone you know. There was music playing in every store, and positively pulsing out of Abercrombie. I’m not sure if you’d smell or hear the store first, but you were certainly treated to both experiences if you merely walked within 10’ of the entrance. I was 14 when my older sister got her first car, and I bet we were in the mall 2-3 times a week, which is probably my most wholesome teenage memory.
I wonder if malls of this caliber still exist? Readers, please report out! In my current town, our primary mall is slowly dying out. The smaller stores have closed down their storefronts one by one and we’re starting to lose our anchor stores. Macy’s is currently shuttering its location and if memory serves, I believe we’re down to an Old Navy and a Bath and Bodyworks. I wonder when the whole place will turn out the lights. Truly the end of an era. I kind of feel sad that I’ll never drop my kids off at the brightly lit entrance, watching the lights of the carousel in the huge window spin, telling them I’ll be back at 7pm to pick them up. I wonder where teenagers hang out on Friday nights now. I guess I’ll find out when the time comes, but the mall was always my plan circa 2002.
So let’s discuss! What were/are your favorite mall stores?
Early 2000s itinerary: Victoria’s Secret // Express // Bath and Body Works to re up on that Warm Vanilla Sugar // Old Navy (ours was a 2-story store!) // Aeropostale // Hollister // Abercrombie & Fitch // food court pitstop, usually for an A&W root beer float // Wet Seal // Forever21 // Spencers for a giggle // and finally, Barnes and Noble. I was always a bookish gal.
2016 and later: Abercrombie // aerie // J Crew // Old Navy // Nordstrom
I’m far more expeditious in my shopping now, but aside from the mall, I’m also a regular visitor to TJ Maxx and Homegoods. I also show my face at Target more than I’d like to admit.
What does your mall itinerary look like? What did it look like?
+Related // this breakdown of 2000s era mall stores had me smiling and nodding the whole way through. Godiva truffles! Yankee candles!
+While we’re at the mall:
Do you have a Target in the mall? I do, so I’m counting this striped pajama set as a mall find.
Crewnews are back in a big way for fall. I’m seeing them everywhere! I like this red one from AE.
Sephora’s annual spring sale is coming up, and I’ve got this vat of Glossier body butter on my list.
Old Navy just keeps surprising and delighting me. These white fleece pants are an immediate yes.
+A puzzle for October. Seasonal,but not halloween specific.
+Last year I was fixated on blue birks that were sold out everywhere. I’m thinking these might scratch the itch!
Addendums -
Related: Do you believe in manifesting?