My Trip to the Mall

November 17, 2023

“If you buy things, you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” W. Buffet

I recently went on my annual trip to the mall. South Charlotte has a very large and upscale mall, with stores like Tiffany’s, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Lululemon, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Kate Spade, Burberry (scarfs were $475), and Michael Kors. There are a total of 165 stores at this mall, including the small annoying kiosks. The mall also had a food court. Chick-fil-A was jammed.

Victoria Secrets had a store, but I have always been too intimidated to enter.

In the large stores like Nordstrom, Belk and Macy’s I could not find an employee. Nor could I find a cashier. To make a purchase I had to travel the width of the store to check out. Since I was shopping for clothes for my wife, I was amazed at the horrible fashions. A lot of grays and browns. No wonder the store was empty of customers.

And women’s sizing is incomprehensible. I saw an extra-large petite. a 2X small, a 5-6, numerous plus sizes, and extra small petite (a cocktail dress for a 4th grader). Torn jeans cost more than regular jeans; some were shredded.

The cosmetic departments and perfumes were staffed by foreign speaking women, most from eastern Europe. And-there’s always a holiday gift set, with 7-9 products and a “gift bag.”

The mall was beautiful but had very few customers. Older men were sitting on couches waiting for their wives. Some walking clubs were present, just walking the mall for exercise.

I don’t see a future for these malls. Another mall in Charlotte recently defaulted on a $147 million loan. Too bad. The frosted soft pretzels were very good.