I am middle aged and live in suburbia USA.
I dislike malls and my wife loves them. She shops and I do other things.
How long since you were in a mall?
About a week if I’m remembering right.
Before that it’d been a year and a half. The time before that it had been well over 10 years. There’s only a semi decent mall within 15 miles of my house. The nearest decent one is 30 miles away.
It’s been a few months since I went to a mall. I mostly go for the opportunity to take a long walk in a climate controlled environment. The last time I went was because I had a coupon for a free pair of underwear at Victoria’s Secret, but the time before that was just to walk. I don’t generally do the traditional “go shopping” thing at the mall. That is, browse through a variety of stores until I find crap to buy. I generally go either to walk or to buy something specific, and once I get that thing, I leave.
…because that would be too long.
Probably 15 years or so since I’ve been in a big, sprawling suburban-type mall. There’s one smaller city mall called Century Mall or somesuch that’s not far from me, I was in there to get to the movie theater on the top floor about 5 years ago if that counts. I didn’t go there to shop, though I discovered an international food court on the lower level that was nice.
Funny thread!
I loathe malls too. Last time would have been 2004, when the psycho ex and I were shopping for a formal gown for me, to be worn at the annual Christmas do. So we were hitting Macy’s, Nordstrom, Penneys etc.
Unless you count going to a movie theater located in a mall…but to the best of my recollection I’ve always entered from the outside, seen the movie and left, without really going into the mall itself. I had a long-standing Saturday night date with a friend, where we’d meet up at Borders book store, browse and shop books, buy a foo-foo coffee drink, then go to the movies at an adjacent mega-mall. Usually after the movie we’d go back to Borders for a “nightcap” and maybe more shopping. I miss Borders. 
I’ve never understood the whole “shopping as entertainment” mindset. I was gobsmacked when I read that Mall of America has been the number one tourist destination in the U.S. more than once.
About a year ago. A friend bought me Bose earbuds for my iPod for Christmas/birthday, and we went to the Bose store at the mall to get them.
A few days. There are a few malls near my house that have free toddler play areas. Since I am not working and have a 2 year old and a 3 month old. It’s a great place to let the toddler work off some energy and play with other kids.
Several months. The closest mall to me is about 40 miles away and pretty lame. The larger mall is 60 miles away. It’s pretty good sized and has a good assortment of stores, but it’s been nearly a year since I was in that one.
I go once a year - my optomologist paired up with a Lenscrafters and is now located in a mall. I like her, so it is worth dealing with the rest of the idiots that inhabit the mall. And my annual visit is in January so I don’t have to deal with the Christmas shopping morons.
I think I went to one 3 years ago to get some clothes for a job interview. Got a haircut while I was there, too. I’m not sure if it really counts because I just parked outside JC Penney, went to their clothing department and salon, then left. The mall part itself gives me the creeps.
The last time I was in a mall was about 4 years ago, when I visited some relatives in Ottawa. Before that, it had been close to 10 years, I believe. I’m just not a big fan of crowds and there’s nothing at the local mall that interests me enough to venture inside.
Over 15 years.
20.5 hours.
There’s a Time Warner store in one of the malls by me. I stopped in there a few weeks ago to swap out my cable modem and as soon as I walked in I realized that I don’t think I’ve been in there in at least a year or two and I certainly haven’t been in there on a regular basis since I was married. The only time I go to the mall now it’s because I’m going there to get something specific and that’s just where the store happens to be. If I can enter the store without walking through the mall, I’ll usually do that.
Not that I have a problem with malls, it’s just that I don’t have any reason to be in them and not strolling around in them is a good way to keep my spending in check.
Other than to go to a theater that was in one, I haven’t been in one for a few years now.
Wow!
I was in one on “Black Friday” i.e. yesterday. I went in the mid afternoon with my college-aged niece so she could get some cool skating sneakers. We got there around 2pm; the parking lot had many cars but I found an open non-handicapped space right next to one of the entrances. The mall’s hallways were busy, but not uncomfortably so. The shoe store was quite near the entrance, and a clerk was immediately available to help her agonize for 45 minutes over which style to buy.
So I sat near the store’s front and watched the non-stop parade of dolled-up hotties for 45 minutes. Tough mission, but somebody’s gotta do it. I held up bravely, I tells ya.
Then I paid for some cool sneakers, we walked back to the car & went home. On the freeway going home we passed another mall. Judging from the parking lot & access road traffic it too was busy but not insane.
If that’s as bad as malls get I just don’t get the hate.
Other than getting underwear & occasionally outerwear at the anchor stores, malls don’t have much of the goods I buy. So I don’t hang out there or visit even semi-regularly. But they’re not evil.
Yesterday. On returning from a mountain drive, I wanted to stretch my legs and shoulders with a walk, so I stopped at Colorado Mills, and made a circuit. Didn’t go into any stores; didn’t buy anything; just walked.
That’s fairly typical of my mall visits, except once in a while I’ll shop for something at Macy’s or Dillard’s.
I have not been in an enclosed mall since approximately 2008.
I don’t know the technical term for the style of the malls I go to now – basically nicer and much larger than a usual shopping center or strip mall. I tend not to go to those that often except for when I order items online from a company that has a store in one of them and I need to make a return. The main exception has been when I’ve needed to drop my macbook off at the Apple store at one of them for repairs.
July 25. I remember because it was right after I had a follow-up appointment with the oral surgeon after my wisdom tooth extraction, during which he told me that the site I thought might be healing wrong was just fine. It wasn’t, and I just kicked the damned infection last month after two rounds of antibiotics.
On the way home I went to the mall to buy an outfit for my cousin’s wedding and somehow convinced my mom to buy me a $100 skirt. I’m a brat.