I also had a Waldenbooks close in my area, but we do have a Barnes and Noble .

Wow, only five places in the entire food court? That's awful. "Belk" is also one of the worst names for a store I've ever heard- it sounds like an insult or a sound someone makes when throwing up. How many corridors are in the mall? Is it "+" shaped?

Going through West Edmonton Mall today, I noticed quite a few things. Warning, way too long a topic here, but it turned into a Diary Entry somehow .

Baskin Robbins seems to have gone WAY downhill in quality, at least concerning their Cotton Candy flavour (previously the best one). I don't know what it is, but it's very bland now. They lost one of their two mall locations to The Marble Slab (more high-end, but around the same price, oddly enough. Maybe a dollar more), and I don't even see them being close in quality anymore- I used to really like their stuff. Curiously, there's another ice cream store in one of the food courts, but I never see anyone actually going there. I don't go there since they didn't hire me once when I was in University and looking around the Mall for work (the only job that even called me back was a Zellers).

Other West-Ed stuff: the Boston Pizza's being renovated, and they finally took out an old Bow Whale statue (it'd been there for decades probably) that served no purpose other than to just sit there. You could walk into the mouth, but there was nothing IN IT. Kind of boring. Some Victoria's Secret just opened, and is REALLY busy, judging by all the bored men waiting on the benches out front- unless that's just where people hang out because of all the free seating . I don't count any dead areas or closed stores any longer. There's a SWEET new Disney store, with tons of stuff, though it's mainly for small kids and little girls (SURPRISING, right? ). I get a kick out of their merchandise and toys, though.

The HMV recently cut off a small chunk of it's space, which looks bizarre- it's a two-floor CD/DVD/Video Game place (they added games a couple years ago when the downloading market REALLY took off), and somehow saves rent money by cutting off a small sliver? Some upscale clothier called "Simons" is moving in to that part, plus another large chunk of an older store.

Visiting the PJ's Pet Centre is amusing, since people are all surprised at the lack of puppies (they recently stopped selling puppies because of the criticism over Puppy Mills, as they were the worst practitioner of it in Canada). I felt bad about a pair of senior cats (12 years old) that were surrendered by presumably an old lady who couldn't care for them, but apparently they've been surrendered to a "no kill" shelter to live out the rest of their days. I felt bad for the cats since they'll still never have a real owner again (though the shelter's supposed to be really nice), but really, not many people were going to buy 12-year old cats, even at a discount. I was almost tempted to (I've been thinking about getting a pair of cats for a while), but it seems like it'd be too sad to have a really old.

The Zellers I used to work at has changed enormously, and largely for the better (despite the whole chain being bought and probably replaced by Target within the year). When I worked there, we had a TON of Clearance. I mean, everywhere. And it was often messy, damaged, and random, with various things on half-empty shelves. Said half-empty shelves attracted garbage and generally looked terrible because there was so much blank space. There would be entire 4-to-8-foot sections that were totally empty, and that always looks trashy in a store.

Nowadays, many of the aisles are pushed back a bit, with nifty displayer tables out front. Much nicer. Of course this all happened years after I left, and most of the managers were replaced shortly after I went (one actually left his wife for one of the employees, another was the WORST EVER for assigning pointless busy-work like randomly adjusting shelves just to keep people busy). Maybe one or two was smart, or the company decided to make the bigger stores more high-end (many other stores are still riddled with bad things). The toy section (my old area) has improved greatly, and is no longer nearly as messy or condensed- they actually shrunk it down BIG-TIME when I quit, but it's expanded to half of the old Sporting Goods section (who goes to the cheapest place ever to get their sports & work-out gear? That's a horrible idea!), has an entire four rows of Little Girl stuff, and several playsets, puzzles & board games.

Not that many people still shop there- Zellers is easily the "poor man's Wal-Mart", and can't compete with their prices, store sizes, or number of employees either (Zellers is probably the single store with the lowest employee-count per square-footage).

It almost makes me a bit sad, though, to see a place I'd worked at for three or four years of my life (during my last years of University, plus another one or two afterwards as I got a bit complacent and had some decent work-friends there) eventually get bought & sold so I can't visit and reminisce anymore. I still like to see the old Canadian Tire (hardware/garden store chain) & Zellers in Red Deer where I used to work, and those were just SUMMER jobs.

On Wednesday the 1st and Thursday the 2nd, while walking around the mall, I noticed the coffee shop was gone. I also noticed, across from the go--Mobile kiosk, right outside the food court, there's a Massage Donation Station, which consists of two leather chairs where you can sit and get automatic massages. I've never seen people use these things, even in bigger malls, for anything other than just sitting. I also noticed that the storefront next to the old Waldenbooks/Pongz! location (across from metro PCS) doesn't have a Retail Space Available sign in the window, and the bench from Cafe Impressions Gallery (and a sign for the business) was in front of the storefront, and some work was being done inside. Maybe the "local artist" is planning to move into the storefront and abandon the outside-the-food-court thingy.

On Saturday the 4th, I noticed Sears' closing sale was underway. There was a sign (and possibly a person) outside the mall, and, more recently, by the CVS quite a bit before the mall. They really want people to shop there.

I've recently noticed that one of the quads now has "Women Heart" stuff on it, but I don't recall if it was empty before or had something else.

On Sunday the 12th, during my break, the personnel manager went into the mall with me while I was going to GameStop. She stopped by Famous Footwear and was like "I thought they was leavin', too." After talking to the employees at GameStop, I heard Famous Footwear is indeed leaving the mall at the end of the month. They apparently had a "Going Out of Business" sign up last month, but the mall made them take it down, because they didn't want prospective new tenants seeing that more stores were leaving the mall. Also, on the mall's website (I haven't checked it for myself), it lists Finish Line as still being here, and there's no mention of the dollar store. Apparently, the mall's new management is trying to entice new tenants to the mall through deception and outright lies. They also said the dollar store guy has been talking about leaving off and on for the past three years, and he's got a more successful store in a "real mall".

Today, while walking around the mall before work, I noticed Protection Simplified Financial is closing (moving to a new office outside the mall). This is a bigger-than-usual blow to the mall, since the guy uses two storefronts.

On Saturday, March 10, when I'd gone to Kmart to get my last pay stub, I noticed the outside of Kmart was painted brown at the height where the logo was. Just that height and up. Also, the old Protection Simplified Financial location had the same brown paint in the mall itself. Yes, brown paint (especially on an abandoned storefront) will save the mall!

The mall has a new owner as of March 27 (I read it in the paper on the 28th). It's some local realty group bearing the mall's name, so it looks like it was created specifically for that purpose. I'd link to the article, but the site seems to be down right now.

I recently got back from the mall again today (I'd gone to pick up some contact lenses from Opti-Mart, which is only a few minutes from the mall, so I figured "Why not?"). In addition to noticing more brown paint (by one of those abandoned outside-the-food-court locations), I also noticed Sprint was gone (not sure when they left). Also, according to one of the guys at GameStop, rumor has is that JC Penney might leave soon after Sears does, but he doesn't think so.

I used to work for Ameritrade in Ft Worth. The home office is in Omaha, NE, and some of us went there to do some training.

The company had bought out one wing of a local mall -- or at least one of the dead dept store slots -- and converted it into call center and office space. It was a bit cramped since it wasn't designed for that use. But I thought it was a clever way of re-appropriating space. There was obviously plenty of parking and easy access to the building, and you had an indoor access to the food court for lunches and breaks.

Our local MP (Member of Parliament) has an office in our mall too.  The mall in our town could also be classified as a "dying mall", as 35-40% of the stores there are vacant.  I think the main reason for it is because our mall charges an insane amount for rent.  It may have been acceptable when Walmart and a grocery store were still located there, but both have since folded or relocated. 

I have heard that there is a plan for a huge renovation for our mall sometime this summer...we can only see...the only thing that is keeping the mall alive is the nearby movie theatre.

On Saturday, May 5, I went to see "The Avengers". Here are my observations regarding the mall:

Sears is gone.

China Max in the food court is gone.

Women Heart is gone from the quad. I noticed one of the quads (likely a different one) now has an "FS Music Presents...Summer Band Camp" display.

Since Sears closed, a guy that used to work there is apparently opening up his own Watch and Jewelry Repair store just outside the Sears corridor, next to FS Music. I already forget what used to be in that storefront. Anyway, the sign said the "grand opening" will be on May 18 (I think).

A company called Miracle-Ear is in the old Protected Simplified Financial location. I'm not sure if it's using both storefronts or one, but it was closed, and I couldn't tell if the business was officially open yet or not.

I can update the "mall directory":

Belk Corridor:

Belk (anchor)
Piercing Pagoda (kiosk)

GNC Corridor:

GNC
Cafe Impressions Gallery

Payless Corridor (for lack of a better name):

MasterCuts
Pro Nail Spa
Payless ShoeSource
Radio Shack
Cash for Gold (quad)

JC Penney Corridor:

JC Penney (anchor)
Precious Paws Rescue P.A.C.
CRM Security (not a store)
Father & Sons Hearing Aid Center
Florida Non-Lawyer Services
Deep Sea Cosmetics (quad)

Kmart Corridor:

Kmart (anchor)
Miracle-Ear (might use two storefronts, not sure)
K.G. Jewerly & Gifts
Regis Salons
KaCy's Portrait Studio
Cellular Revolution - Verizon (kiosk)
Bath Fitter (display)
St. Leo University (quad)
ProActiv (vending machine)

Non-Corridor Stores and Misc.:

Chelle's Scents
Crystal River Bear Factory
Crystal River Gem Mines
Dollar Plus (store and quad)
Ed's Watch and Jewelry Repair
FS Music
FS Music Presents...Summer Band Camp (quad)
Funland (kiddy rides)
Game Central Arcade
GameStop
Glamour Pets (quad)
go--Mobile (kiosk)
Herbal Therapy Pacs (quad; has multiple names)
Hot Shades (quad)
metro PCS
OfficeMax (stand-alone building away from the actual mall)
Regal Cinema Crystal River Mall 9
Sunshine Tee Shirts
Zales Jewelers

Treats Food Court:

Hurricane Simulator (booth)
Magic Twists and Cream
Schiano's Pizza
Subway