Scenes from the Mall

The other day I had a couple of hours to kill while My Guy was at a lengthy medical appointment. Fortunately, we were about a half mile from a sizeable mall, one I never think to go to even though 20 minutes on the highway would easily get me there.

          We do have a mall near our house, but it’s been circling the drain for some time now, gradually being stripped of the Pennys, Macys, and finally, Sears. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I was there, now that it’s pretty much empty stores or baseball cap and sneaker stores.

          Last week’s mall still looks to be viable in spite of the sealed doors where Sears used to be. Pennys is at one end, Macys the other, with a Target in between. However at 11:30 in the morning I would have expected more than the one or two fellow shoppers I passed in the cavernous hall.

 I began at Macys in the hope of a battery for my watch. No problem, although they’d have to send it out – another death in the retail world where a simple battery replacement is too much for the young man behind the counter. Good thing I asked how much – it would be $50. Since the watch probably set me back about $19.95, I declined.

          On my way into Macys, I walked past not one, or two, but four massive counters devoted to nothing but cosmetics or perfumes. All were empty of customers except one 50ish woman perched on a chair about to be transformed, I guess, by the attendant wielding the makeup sponge. I can’t imagine sitting in the aisle of a department store while having expensive cosmetics spackled on as others go by.

          To his credit, the Macys jewelry clerk had suggested a small jewelry shop farther into the mall and I found it easily. Behind the counter was a man of wispy hair and crushed demeanor, and based on his age and the empty store I decided he was the owner, soldiering on in another imploding mall. I was to return in 15 minutes.

          Target was filled with shoppers, an indication of the merchandising changes as consumers shift down from the pricier department stores. There I found a Christmas gift to sock away for the twin granddaughters, along with an armload of tiny stuffed animals that will make great stocking stuffers.  

          The jewelry shop gentleman had had such an Eeyore quality to him I was happy to see his business brimming with people when I returned -  a woman to whom he was showing rings, and a group of twenty-somethings strolled in behind me.

          I paid for my watch and left, on my way out bemused by a sizeable booth offering “Edible Cookie Dough.” Clearly, I need to get out more.