Why Such a Dis-Mall Outlook?

    Late last month, I went on my usual late-winter shopping trip. It started years ago as a birthday shopping trip in January, but I slowly moved it to late February to avoid the worst of the bad weather as well as to catch the Easter candy when it starts coming out.  As it was, I had to go on an alternate date, as there was snow in the forecast for both of the planned dates.  It turned out that there wasn't any accumulation on either of those days, but even the nuisance snow might have caused driving problems.  So, as I was driving to the Huntington Mall for the day, I began thinking about the forty-odd years I have been going there and how I could turn the experience into a blogcast post.  When I first started going to the mall, it was a whole day affair.  We would frequently not come back home until after seven in the evening.  Fortunately, it was summer those early trips, so it wasn't yet dark most of the times when we got back in.  By the time I was driving, we started going at least twice a year, ultimately settling on late winter and late summer as the best times to go.  The last few years, we had been getting back by 5:30 pm, and that is with extra stops along the way back.  That mall is so much less than when I started going soon after it opened.  Only one of the original anchor stores is still there.  Two if you count a rebranding.  A few of the food court stops are still the same. The cinema, which I never had the time to go to.  Maybe some other stores from back then are still there, but I'm sure they aren't in there original sites.  Anyway, this year, we only went to six stores in the mall, only buying stuff from two of them.  I was in line at a third store, but my traveling companion was getting cranky and didn't feel like waiting for me to get anything.  I had to put the emergency item back that was going to replace something that originally broke a few day previously.  We also stopped at two outlying store and bought some things, as well as eating at the local Burger King where I finally tried a Whopper with a mozzarella cheese stick and some marinara sauce.  I didn't get the proportions just right to make it taste the way I wanted it, but it was close.  Before you ask, as a storeowner, I am all for buying locally.  Almost everything we bought that time is not easily found locally any more. The exception was some Easter candy, but it is a crap shoot if certain products are found nay given year, and this year some of them turned up soon after the trip.  Anyway, I got to see the damage to the local Target that has made some national news markets.  We also made a quick trip to Barboursville to check out the Kroger.  It might be the biggest one I've ever been in, but aside from the frozen foods, it doesn't have that great a variety any more.  We stopped for gas and some groceries on the way back and the trip was done.  There are so few stores at the mall anymore that I like or really want to go to.  Some stores just weren't carrying what we were looking for, while others just didn't cater to our needs.  For example, there had been seven stores at that mall that I had bought comic books at over the decades.  All but one of them has closed.  The remaining store doesn't really sell individual comics any more, although some would argue otherwise.  (I picked comic books as this is a subject I frequently think about as a way to help me calm down to go to sleep.  Also, this was the highest number for a product I could reliably count to.  Clothing would only rate a four, six if you include rebranding.  I couldn't remember getting clothes at too many specialty stores there, as opposed to someplace else, such as Lexington.) I have already started looking into other place to go for a day-trip to shop to replace the second Huntington trip for the year, limiting the mall to once-a-year again to to catch up on the rarer products that no one else seems to keep.  I will hate it, but maybe somewhere new will bring back some of the wonder that has faded from this mall.