The "Nice Mall" vs. the "Yucky Mall"
 

Do you all have the nice mall and the yucky mall in your area? Our nice malls around here are the Annapolis Mall, Columbia Mall and, that outlet mecca, Arundel Mills Mall. They have stores like Hechts, Nordstrom, Bailey Banks and Biddle, Yankee Candle, Bebe, Banana Republic, etc.

The yucky malls, Harundale, Marley Station and Glen Burnie, have things like Dollar General, Rave, Glamour Shots, Payless, Value City, Sears, lots of boarded up storefronts and more mullets that you've seen since 1985.

It's kind of sad, because I understand that the yucky malls were once nice malls. Guess you never can tell what's gonna happen!

Yeah that mall in Glen Burnie is poo. Its only about half full now I think as opposed to 10 years ago when it was nearly full. I love the Anapolis mall even though traffic there is always crowded. I don't like malls much though, I like the stores that I can drive up to and run in to grab something

Troy has two malls: Oakland and Sommerset...Oakland is the ghetto mall and Sommerset is the rich people mall. Sommerset has a North and South building with a skywalk built over the main road to connect them. (stores include Neiman's, Tiffany's, Sak's, Armani, FAO Shwartz, The White House/Black Market, Kenneth Cole, J Crew, and Nordstroms, to name a few).

Baton Rouge definitely has "A tale of 2 malls" going on.

In its day, Cortana was awesome. Its HUGE. But its definitely gotten more ghetto since Mall of Louisiana opened up. Mall of LA has stuff like Abercrombie, B.Rep, Ann Taylor, etc (which, unfortunately, is upscale for this town). The clientele is what makes the difference. Cortana is in a scary neighborhood and at night, it looks like there are lots of gangs there. Mall of LA just feels safer.

The Coral Springs/Boca Raton area has two malls.
One is in Coral Springs and it is called the Coral Square mall. All the little middle school wannabe gangsters hang out front. Many stores have been abandoned and replaced by crappy stores. Payless, Sears, and no name stores are there.
The Boca Town Center has stores such as Bebe, Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Banana Republic, etc. are there and people come to the mall wearing something that they would wear to a Beverly Hills Oscar party.

ha ha you know this one Tracy.

Nice: Ross Park
Yucky: Northway

Nice: South Hills
Yucky: Century III (although it is appearing less yucky lately)

Around here we more have outdoor plazas or town centers which are more downmarket and then the enclosed malls have the nicer stores. I don't consider a plaza a mall. Although that's changing with the Waterfront development - it is located where the largest steel mill around here used to be. You do feel sort of weird, for lack of a better word, when you first see it and see some of the old steel works around it, but you get used to it - the jobs might not be paying the same $$$ but it's a hell of a lot less depressing than driving by the empty steel mill.

Luckily, all the malls in San Fran are absolutely gorgeous and have all the best stores :D. Here, there are malls of boutiques, and malls of more popular stores and big department stores.

But, there is one mall in the Bay Area that I don't particularly like -- Serramonte Mall in Colma (Daly City, CA -- about 30 min from SF). That one isn't the best.

Yes!

In my area of Houston there is Almeda (the yucky mall) and Baybrook (the kick ass mall). The only mall I like better than Baybrook is the Galleria, but it's farther away.

Yep, on one end of town we've got Fayette Mall, which is lovely and is supposedly the biggest mall in this area...then on the other end of town, we've got Lexington Mall with decor left over from the 70s and about two shops.

Killarney, Ha ha that is so funny!! I have always said that Marley Station is a nasty mall and no one ever listens to me. I won't go in it for anything. And don't forget about Laurel Mall, it is pretty bad too! Annapolis is awsome!! I do all my shopping there. I worked at Hechts this summer...great discount!

AchtungBaby, I came all the way from Morehead to Lexington to go to the Lexington mall and got there and saw that there was no mall!! I was so mad! But Fayette mall is pretty good. I want to go to the mall in Ashland and see what they have there.

Anne Marie

Can anyone tell me about the malls in Tampa/St. Pete?
Which are the biggest/best?

Thanks!!!

Yep that's definetly the way it is in Suburban Kansas City.

We have Oak Park Mall, which has to be one of the best malls ever with a Nordstroms, 2 Dillards, JC Penny's, the Jones' Store, Eddie Bauer, 2 Abercrombies, Hollister, American Eagle, Disney Store, Gap, and a bunch of other good stores too. People here in Nebraska will ask me about it when I say where I'm from.

On the Yucky side however we have Metcalf South (but no Metcalf North...interesting) and also The Great Mall of The Great Plains. Metcalf South is absolutely vacant, it has a Sears, but the Jones' Store is leaving their location there for Oak Park. My dad said that MS Mall is going to be torn down by 2004 or something like that, but it's old and vacant so no big loss. The Great Mall is an entirely different story. It's in a town called Olathe (another suburb) and it was O-towns first mall, and it opened my HS Freshmen year to a load of fanfare. The gross intake for the mall in it's first two weekends was something ungodly like 75 million dollars or something just absolutly Huge. They said that every resident of Olathe went to the mall in those first two weeks, and with a town population nearing a hundred thou, that's pretty impressive. I think total number of visits was close to half a million in the first month, you could barely walk the halls of the place. This was huge news!!! Fast forward just two and half years later and it became the mall with the greatest number of shoe stores you could ever imagine! Now, you go there, even on a weekend and it's pretty empty. A couple of nice stores, like an OffSaks 5th Avenue, but the decor is horrible, and the rest of the stores suck. Go there on a weekday afternoon, and you find that the stay at home moms have discovered that the long straight halls are perfect for letting bands of 2 and 3 year olds just run away all their energy. I think the last time I was there I saw no less than 5 "gangs" of stroller moms...all with about 6 toddlers just running, and a couple of infants in the strollers. It was kinda amusing b/c there was always one little kid in each group who had fallen down or something yelling at the others to slow downhttp://www.plaudersmilies.de/rofl.gif.

I'm not really a mall shopper since we have many of the nice mall stores separately on the street of New York City. There are a lot of malls on Long Island, but not too many in the city. Or maybe those are the 'Yucky Malls.' :rolleyes:

Nice & Yucky Malls- New Orleans and North Dallas
 

Yucky Mall New Orleans- The Plaza of Lake Forrest
Nice Malls- Lakeside and Esplande

Here in North Dallas where I live, there are about 7 or 8 different malls near me. I've been to about 5 of them

Here are my rankings:

Nice Malls:

Galleria( cause it has Sacks,Norstroms,Ann Taylors)

Stonebriar-fairly new mall has Eddie Bauer,J Crew,Talbots

Shops of Willow Bend- I've never actually been there,but it's in Plano and Plano is a very rich section of North Dallas

Middle Tier:

Vista Ridge, Valley View

Kind of Yucky:
Collin Creek, Richardson Square

Oh lord, yes! The Great Mall of The Great Plains should be shown to every interior design student as an example of what not to do! The carpet in that place gives me a headache.

I wouldn't really say Vista Ridge is middle tier...it's pretty good.

Northpark is really good.
Irving Mall is kinda yuck.
Golden Triangle up in Denton SUCKS!!!!!

Otherwise I agree with your Dallas ratings. Dallas is sort of my second home. I went to school there for a while and my entire extended family lives there, my parents lived there until I was born, etc. I think that as a rule, Dallas malls are better than Houston malls, however, the Houston Galleria is better than the Dallas Galleria.

I will have to agree that the malls in San Francisco are awesome!

I have also been to one mall in Providence (Providence Place) and it was surprisingly good.

There's all kinds of good malls by my house... the one like 5 minutes down the road, Orland Square, has Jcrew, Banana Rep, Gap, Ann Taylor Loft, Express, Arden B, Rampage, A&F, AE, Charolette Russe, Marshall Fields...

Like 20 minutes away there's Oakbrook - one of my favorite malls - its all outdoors and there's fountains and flowers everywhere in the spring and summer - goregous. It has the likes of Tiffany & Co, Sephora, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Nine West, Crabtree & Evelyn.... plus they have a Maggianos Italian Restaurant here (if youre from chicago you know what i'm talking about)

within a decent drive from me i have Woodfield Mall, Gurnee Mills, Old Orchard, watertower, and of course the Magnificent mile :)

Bad malls around me = Chicago Ridge mall, Ford City - theyre just dead and don't have any good stores...

Re: Nice & Yucky Malls- New Orleans and North Dallas
 

ROFL. The Plaza is just downright scary. Calling it ghetto would be a COMPLIMENT. When I was little, we'd go there all the time, but then Slidell (a 'burb of NOLA) got a mall (which sucks now, incidentally) and now no one goes to the Plaza. The only department store left is Dillards. I think there are a few "urban wear" boutiques and that's about it. In its day, it rocked. Had an ice skating rink and everything. Now people are damn afraid of that area.

Lakeside was starting to get kinda gross and then they got major upscale. Added Bebe, Nicole Miller, expanded the Mignon Faget to 10 times its old size, Sharper Image. It rocks.

The best, and most upscale mall shopping in New Orleans is The Shops at Canal Place. They've got Saks, either Gucci or Chanel (can't remember which one), Pottery Barn, White House/Black Market, Mignon Faget.

I gotta agree with you about Baton Rouge's malls juniorgrrl. Cortana used to be the place to go when I was in like junior high. Now I try to avoid it at all costs. Most of the stores in there are really picked over and kinda trashy.

OH...and I love the Shops at Canal Place. Too bad I can't afford a damn thing there! :D

Allison

Re: Re: Nice & Yucky Malls- New Orleans and North Dallas
 

We use to live in the East, so we'd always shop at the Plaza. But now that we live Uptown, we shop at Lakeside. I haven't been to Lakeside in ages, so I wasn't aware of the changes

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dzsaigirl
[B]I wouldn't really say Vista Ridge is middle tier...it's pretty good.

Northpark is really good.
Irving Mall is kinda yuck.
Golden Triangle up in Denton SUCKS!!!!!

I based my ratings on malls that were on my side of 635 :D I've never been to Northpark cause it's in the Greenville area. I don't get to that side of 635 that often. I wouldn't go to Irving if you paid me. If I ever get into grad school at UNT, then I'll have to take a trip to Golden Triangle

I shouldn't say Vista Ridge is middle tier. I just don't like driving on 35 to get there. Out of all the malls that I named, Vista Ridge is actually the closest one to me,but I always find myself going to Collin Creek or Stonebriar

Ohhh LORDY I love Oakbrook. Takes about 40 minutes to get there from my parents' house (in the Near Northwest suburbs), but it's worth it. Great stores, but I have to wonder who came up with the idea of building an outdoor mall in Illinois??

Ahhhh, Woodfield. My little came to visit me over Thanksgiving one year and I took her there and she just about had to be dragged out. Did you know it has more stores than the Mall of America? Water Tower is great, too, but Gurnee Mills doesn't impress me. Old Orchard is the closest decent mall to where I grew up, about 20 minutes up Golf Road...gosh, I remember that mall BEFORE it was remodeled. By far, the ickiest mall around there is Golf Mill, in Niles. I go there to pay my Express bill and that's about it. It's tiny and teenybopper. Blech.

33girl, I miss the Ross Park Mall. I used to go there and then afterwards I would go to the Mad Mex in the North Hills for curry chicken burritos. Then I would feel the need to walk back to my apartment in Squirrel Hill. :)

There are two really great malls near me, about 15 minutes drive in opposite directions. The South Coast Plaza, in Costa Mesa, is from what I understand the top moneymaking mall in the nation. I feel like I have to dress up when I go there. They're known for all their designer shops: Prada, Chanel, CD, Gucci, Armani, Cartier, Dolce and Gabbana, the list goes on. There's also stores for those of us that don't make six figures: J Crew, Banana, Origins, and a HUGE Victoria's Secret. They kinda fall down on department stores, though. That's where Fashion Island, in Newport Beach, picks up. They have a Bloomie's, Neiman's, Macy's, Robinson's-May, etc. Oh, and neither mall has enough bathrooms. Do native SoCal's pee less than the average person??

Even though I live in the midst of southern California consumer culture, my favorite mall in the entire world is the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It's enormous, bright and well-lit, they have all kinds of stores and restaurants AND...you can practically eat off the floor. Every time you turn around there's someone cleaning something.

What about the Michigan Ave stores? Or is that too far of a drive ;)

Michigan Avenue is part of the Magnificent Mile ;) and no - its only like 30 minutes away (chicago thing - we measure distance in minutes not miles :D)

33 Girl: See, that's what I mean about time changing the malls! I remember when Century III opened when I was a little kid and everyone thought it was the greatest. LOL, it was the first time anyone in Pittsburgh had ever seen a foodcourt! I agree that Ross Park Mall is awesome, though. Plus, it was the mall closest to my parents' house so it was where I would go whenever I needed anything. I still go there when I'm home and stock up on clothes; no clothing sales tax in Penna :D

This is going to be a stretch of the imagination, but do you know Allegheny Center Mall on the North Side? Now I understand that it's mostly empty storefronts, the stores that are there are yucky and the mall itself has sailed merrily past "ghetto" all the way to "you're taking your life in your hands in the parking garage". When I was little, I used to look forward to my grandma taking me to ride the Easter train and to get my picture taken with the Easter bunny and Santa Claus there!


IowaHawkeye: Ooooooh, I know Maggiano's! The nearest one to me is at Tyson's Corner Mall in Virginia (The ultimate in mall luxury:) ) and when I'm doing a day of serious shopping there I always stop in for lunch. Yummmmmm!

DFW Metro Malls
 

You Dallasites are making me laugh. I moved to a much smaller town from Cedar Hill/Duncanville almost 2 years ago. We have ONE mall, and it doesn't even have a Foley's (but we have a Bealls, a Sears AND a Mervyns!!! Classy...). Big change from rating malls geographically based on I-635! I used to eat lunch at the Galleria or Northpark every day!!! How I miss Nordy's (Thank God the Dillard's in Lubbock at least has a M.A.C. counter!).

Living in D'ville, you had to travel to go to a mall because all we had was SOUTHWEST CENTER MALL (formerly Red Bird Mall), and we never really felt like taking our lives into our own hands just to go to a Dillards that was full of junk, and see a bunch of jewelry kiosks with gigantic gold medallions for sale!!! My step-mom was carjacked there once (she was not harmed), and we had 3 cars stolen from that parking lot...and that was only on the edge of the hood! Wheee!

We ended up at the Parks in Arlington most of the time--I'd say top of the middle tier. Willow Bend & Stonebriar didn't open up until after we were gone, but I liked Stonebriar when I visited...Willow Bend was a ghost town & way too snooty. Of course, I remember the days when Prestonwood was the top-tier mall (have they torn that place down yet?)

What a funny thing to reminisce about...I guess I never really thought about the malls while I was there! Ooh-I just remembered the Festival Marketplace mall! yikes.

::Sniff sniff:: I miss Woodfield whether I'm two hours away in "Chambana" or 13 hours away right now...Gosh, I love that place! It is truely a great thing. :D I need a Woodfield out here.

Are you talking about the 900 North Michigan Stores? That can be a hike to something like the State Street Marshall Field's.

We have so fricking many malls around here....fortunately there are quite a few good ones. My favorite is Beachwood mall, which has a Saks, a Nordstrom, J. Crew, Sephora, BCBG, Dillard's, Abercrombie, Neiman Marcus Gallery, all the Gaps, Banana Republic, etc etc. Yeah there are some REALLY BAD malls here but they are generally in the really bad areas where you just don't go unless you want to get carjacked.

I have three malls in equal distance from my house. They are west oaks, willowbrook, and katy mills. Willowbrook is the nicer mall of the three, then probably katy mills and then west oaks. I hardly go to willowbrook because it is always so crowded, katy mills has a ton of stores, but not many that i shop in. I normally go to west oaks because im a fan of gap, foley's, visible changes, victoria's secret, and express.

My favorite malls in houston, however, are First Colony Mall and of course the Galleria. The Galleria is the best mall ever!! Has every store imaginable, an ice skating rink, movie theatre, many many restaurants, and cute guys! ;)

dzsaigirl- i have never been to baybrook, but its because that is too far of a drive for me! Maybe one day ill check it out

I live in the middle of the shopping mecca of the world.......Los Angeles and Orange Counties. I swear that every block there is another mall or shopping center or something.

My favorite malls (better known to all the LB Sig Kaps as the "Motherships"): Fashion Island in Newport Beach, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Beverly Center in guess where, and Robertson Blvd in L.A.

Some of the "less desirable malls": Fox Hills Mall in Century City is down right scary, Lakewood Mall in Lakewood (this is actually where the whole Tupac/Biggie mess got started.)

My all-time favorite mall is Pentagon City near Washington, D.C. I don't know if it is the mall itself or the surrounding city, but I just love it there.

Chicago and St. Louis area malls
 

At home(St. L):

St. Clair Square: mid-level your typical Sears, Pennys, Famous-Barr and Dillards, inside stores everything from Payless to Express to Abercrombie to Rave. Crowd fluctuates too, but mostly nice when you are in a hurry and live in Illinois burbs.

Plaza Frontenac: Uppity, but inside is plush with couches and arm chairs. Does not look like a mall. Upscale stores.

Galleria: A must-go once location. A big mall with awesome stores. Moreso upscale.

And on the lower end:

St. Louis Centre (downtown) - once a nice location, now only two anchor stores a downstairs Dillards and a Famous Barr that leaves much to be desired. There's an office max, no wait it closed. a Lerners. But most stores sit vacant. A popular hang out for homeless. A nice food court that draws a lunch crowd is the only thing keeping the mall alive. its a shame bc its not bad looking, but shopping in downtown stl is not that big.


Theres already been alot said about Chicago malls. I have fallen in love with Woodfield(10 min near work) and Oakbrook. Downtown is always awesome, state and michigan and watertower. I have a tiny mall near me named harlem-irving plaza, and it only has a kohls, carson pirie scott, express, lerner and limited, but I like it for quick clinique or new outfit out fixes.
And although its not a mall, there are cute shops where I live including a benetton boutique less than a mile from my apt.

You forgot about North West Plaza, it's the lowest of the low.

ZTAngel: I live in the boynton beach area...have you ever been to our mall? totally disgusting! Although it's been renovated and looks nicER, it's still a sh*thole. It has the fabulous Rave, Sears, KBToys, The Dollar Tree, etc. I do like Town Center though. It has Tiffanys and A&F, plus my brother's boyfriend (yep, hes gay) works in the Banana Republic...so i'm partial to getting discounts. Another mall i like (for the most part in our area) is the Sawgrass Mills Outlet mall. Do you like it? Some poeple hate it, some people love it... OOh OOh, another fab mall is The Gardens. Ever been? It's great...it's so clean and well kept..it's always worth the drive. The only problem is some of the prices...arg. Oh well, what's a girl to do?
Just thought it was neat how you lived in the same area as me...let me know of any other good malls...i'm eager to find some more...
~Tara~

I do most of my shopping on the Northshore in Mandeville. They opened several nice shopping areas. Canal Place is ok but too expensive and too much trouble to get to.

In Baton Rouge there isn't much except the Mall of Louisiana which seems to stay picked over.

I find that the stores at the Premier Center in Mandeville are pretty picked over most of the time, actually. I live over there and when I'm home we go probably once a week, if not more, just becasue its one of the few things to do over there. But its a lot more conveinent than going into Metairie to Lakeside, for the exact same stores.

I can't wait until they build the Target in Covington though.

Yes, I've been to the Boynton Beach mall. It's a lot like the Coral Square mall. Really crappy.
I like Sawgrass but I can only stay in that mall for maybe an hour at a time. There's too many people and all of them are tourists. I lose my temper too quick.
I like the malls in Miami especially. Aventura is my personal favorite but it's too bad it's an hour away from where I use to live in Ft.Lauderdale.

Malls in the Lou
 

The Nicest Mall: Plaza Frontanac-Nieman Marcus, Tiffany & Co., Saks, J Crew, etc.

Nice Malls: The Galleria and West County Shopping Mall-Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, Bananna Republic, etc. St. Louis Mills is a nice mall if you're not into shopping, there's an ice skating rink (sometimes you can watch the Blues practicing :cool: ), a huge arcade, and mini race car track.

Ok Malls: Chesterfield Mall, Crestwood Mall, South County Mall, St. Louis Mills (store wise)

Yucky: Jamestown (ghetto) and Mid Rivers Mall (hoosierland - lots of mullets!)

The Yuckiest: Northwest Plaza - I'm scared to go there alone even in the daytime! A guy has been shot and killed inside a department store. Numerous carjackings happened regularly in the 90s. Three young black women has disappeared (at separate times - can you say serial killer?).

Re: Malls in the Lou
 

D'oh!

The Mr.'s little brother works at the Plaza. We went once to visit--when we were there, there were about 3 different stores selling brightly-colored suits. The "ghetto" mall FO SHO.

I've been trying to get him to take me to Frontenac. He doesn't want to go, and it just annoys me. :mad:

In my hometown, there's only one mall. It's okay--but really geared towards old ladies and teenyboppers.

Now, I pretty much just stick to the department stores.