Ghost Town

Let me ask you a question: is there any place creepier than an empty mall? Yesterday I was up at the Walpole Mall, looking for jeans. Technically, I started just outside the mall, because the Old Navy doesn't have an entrance into the main building, which makes sense because inside is downright depressing. After going next door to the Barnes & Nobles, I used their entrance in and was greeted by silence. I went from a well-lit bookstore with the latest non-offensive pop music playing in my ears (Taylor Swift, naturally) to a dim hallway where the only thing I heard was the hum of the light fixtures. It was like the exact opposite of Dorothy opening the door of her black-and-white farmhouse and stepping into the dazzling land of Oz.

Now, the Walpole Mall has never been what you would categorize as a bustling shopping center, but there were at least enough stores to keep you window shopping. Not anymore. Even the stores that had been there forever (like the Irish shop you never saw people in that I was convinced was a mob front) have given up the fight and moved on. I'm not sure if it is the economy, the fact that two new, high-end shopping centers have opened up in the adjacent towns or if rent in the mall is unrealistically high, but the place is barren.

At this point it's a Kohl's at one end, a fabric store on the other and practically nothing in between but an Old Country Buffet and a manicure place. (Also, amazingly, a video arcade. I would have thought that would have closed first, especially when you consider they haven't upgraded their games since 2005, but it's still hanging in there. I guess the opportunity to spend $150 to win enough tickets to get a $40 popcorn maker is recession-proof.) I didn't even see any people for the first 200 feet, which made the entire experience even odder. When was the last time you walked 200 feet in any shopping center and didn't see another human being? I think the expectations of human contact are what made the lack of it even more blaring.

The strangest part of this entire thing is that the outside has recently undergone massive renovations. They've built an addition (which all the chain stores that were in the mall moved to) and added multiple stand-alone buildings on the outskirts of the parking lot filled with restaurants and new businesses. It would be like spending thousands of dollars on your landscaping while forgetting to put furniture in your living room. And everyone talks about how the new stores are great for business, but it seems to me that spreading the stores farther apart is the reverse of what a mall is supposed to do. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if anyone has an idea for a store, I know some retail locations that are available. You might want to supply your own music, though.