# I haven't been in a mall for more then 20 years. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 26, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183 "2011-11-26T20:51:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/21 "2011-11-27T04:21:08Z")
It’s been years since I’ve been in a proper mall. I was in an open-air shopping center this summer. It has a Macy’s and a couple of other shops. Does that count as a mall? If not, I really cannot remember the last time. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/22 "2011-11-27T05:04:17Z")
About two weeks, if you define “the ever-expanding maze of enclosed retail-lined pedestrian tunnels, bridges, and spaces linking and underlying many of the major residential, commercial, and institutional buildings in the central business district of Toronto” as “a mall”. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/23 "2011-11-27T06:58:19Z")
Most malls seem to have evolved from enclosed shopping centers to just groups of stores in the same parking lot around here. I haven’t been in an enclosed mall in 20 years or so, I think. However, I do go down to the shopping center that’s a couple of blocks away from me, though I tend to just park at the store I want to shop at, go in, get my stuff, and then go to another shopping center, rather than go to another store in the same shopping center. I’d argue that Target and WalMart have become minimalls in their own right. You can get a wide variety of merchandise, and the Target, at least, generally has a fastfood restaurant, an optical center, a beauty salon, and other specialty stores inside the Target building. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/24 "2011-11-27T07:32:34Z")
Yesterday I was in the mall. The mall has it all! 😉 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/25 "2011-11-27T19:26:43Z")
About two weeks. Once I get back home (Wednesday), my wife and I will go to the mall every morning and walk for an hour in a climate controlled environment. The mall is about a mile away. I am funny this way. I hate shopping but I like being around people, so I enjoy malls, especially when the stores are still closed (but the food court is mostly open). When I go downtown (Montreal), I mostly stick to the underground city (basically wall to wall malls) and there is a path through that gets me nearly to my office at McGill. With the snow and cold, this is the only way to go. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/26 "2011-11-27T19:36:00Z")
Eh. The closest one is 100 miles away. And I don’t go. When visiting folks back east my wife and I will kill time in a mall when waiting for movie or something, but I sure don’t ever go to one to go ‘shopping’. I abhor ‘shopping’ and get most of what I need online. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/27 "2011-11-27T19:38:44Z")
We drove through an open-air mall last Wednesday to get to a JC Penney store. Before that, probably about 2 years. I just don’t like to shop. If I have to go to a store, it’s in and out as fast as I can. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/28 "2011-11-27T19:47:17Z")
My Lenscrafters is in a mall too. That’s the only reason I ever go to that mall anymore. It’s been about six years since I’ve been to a real, indoor mall to eat & shop. I loved going to Lubys and then stroll the mall. Lubys closed in 2005 and there’s really no need to go to that mall anymore. I remember when malls were fun. They had places cooking fudge and the smell was so fantastic. You could grab ice cream. Lots of things. Now there’s nothing but clothing stores in the malls. > [@aruvqan](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/29 "2011-11-27T21:11:39Z")
Three, maybe four days. Love shopping. I would go more frequently if I had a better mall to go to because the one in my small town is lousy. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/30 "2011-11-27T21:38:27Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I remember when malls were fun. They had places cooking fudge and the smell was so fantastic. You could grab ice cream. Lots of things. Now there’s nothing but clothing stores in the malls. Most sizable Malls have food courts, presumably with ice cream. But I do kinda remember them having more ‘fun’ stores when I was a kid and less clothing. I guess part of it is the types of stores that I like are becoming obsolete. Arcades have largely died out. With Waldenbooks and then Borders going under, mall bookstores seem a lot less common. Radioshack has basically devolved into a cellphone store. I don’t think Gamestop and the like sell PC games anymore, and even if they did I’d still buy from Steam anyways. Now its all Hot Topics and Baby Gaps as far as the eye can see. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/31 "2011-11-27T21:40:13Z")
I buy damn-near everything from Amazon. What I don’t buy there I buy from Walmart. It has been a while, but no more than a few years. ---
**Author:** ![missinformation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@missinformation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missinformation)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/32 "2011-11-27T22:06:13Z")
Over a year ago…went with someone I was dating…we walked through the mall…usually hit the small Hallmark store for my Jingle Pal for my mother…do most of my shopping at Walgreens since it is right next to my work and I don’t drive… ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/33 "2011-11-28T03:57:52Z")
I work in a mall. Granted, not a big, huge, successful, busy mall, but a mall nonetheless. So…it’s been 24 hours. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/34 "2011-11-28T04:33:26Z")
> [@Mewl\_Dear](#): > > I am middle aged and live in suburbia USA. > I dislike malls and my wife loves them. She shops and I do other things. So the “other things” you do just never involve shopping, or you frequent only stand alone concerns for whatever that means? And what about strip malls? You don’t even go to strip malls? ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/35 "2011-11-28T04:52:33Z")
“I don’t go to the mall” is the new “I don’t watch tv.” ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/36 "2011-11-28T05:11:19Z")
I was in a mall yesterday. I guess I’m in a mall once every few months. I don’t love shopping, but I don’t hate it either. Sometimes you just gotta buy stuff, and sometimes that stuff is at a mall. There are several malls that are convenient to where I live, so it’s not like I have to go out of my way to get to one. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/37 "2011-11-28T05:26:21Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > “I don’t go to the mall” is the new “I don’t watch tv.” Really? Does that mean I can go back to watching TV now? I don’t go to malls because I don’t have any use for things that are likely to be sold in malls. The malls only _coincidentally_ give me the creeps. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183/38 "2011-11-28T08:53:04Z")
Two hours. I may go again tomorrow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-been-in-a-mall-for-more-then-20-years/604183.md?page=1)