Welcome to the Third World

                   

                                                        A mall similar to the one discussed.

 

 

   We live in a rural place but sometimes we make it to one of three small Southern cities for shopping, or something else.  We no longer go very often, and so the changes in these places seem very clear and obvious to us.

                        Yesterday, my daughter, grandson and I went shopping in a particular shopping center that we used much more about twenty years ago.  Two of our kids were in college in that city, and for that reason, they or I were at the shopping center sometimes three times a week. It was a bit upscale and had some good shopping, a medical supply shop, an electronics shop,a bank,  a Tuesday Morning, a large chain grocers, about seven good restaurants, and some physicians, dentists and veterinarian's offices. One of the restaurants had a very reasonable Asian buffet, and so when the kids who were in college needed something, or when they needed some extra money or something, I used to meet them there for lunch.

                        I fully understand that malls have a lifespan.  Upscale malls don't remain upscale malls. As they age, they may or may not find their original occupant stores remaining with them. Some stores will go out of business. Others might find a less expensive commercial rental arrangements. The only constant anywhere is change.

                       About five years ago, the medical supply store moved away. A Dollar Tree moved in. The great Asian buffet closed.  Two bus stops were placed inside the mall.  The bus stop brought more customers, but it also brought elderly and disabled customers.   I stopped at the mall one day and a woman asked me if I could help her with her copay to the methadone clinic.  I didn't but I did some checking.  Yes indeed, there is a methadone clinic on the bus line, and they do actually charge a copay.  Shortly after, a vehicle that says Mall Security began making regular sweeps throughout the mall.

                       A couple of times when I had stopped to shop in Tuesday Morning, the police were in another part of the mall. There had been fist fights, and a couple of times a shop owner had called to have someone with a psychiatric problem removed from their store.  The family and I joked that it might not be safe for us to be shopping there any more.

                      Last year, Tuesday Morning, which is a business that has existed in the US for fifty years with many branches, closed its doors. Their store remains empty. A number of other stores have closed since, including some restaurants.  I am told the homeless bring sleeping bags and sleep within the courtyard of one of the empty restaurants.

                      Yesterday, we stopped by during the day because our errand took us to the area.   My grandson wanted to make a quick trip to the Dollar Tree.  When I tried to use the bathroom there, there were signs up that said that the bathrooms were not for customers, and were for employees only.  This was funny because it's exclusively self checkout with only one employee overseeing your checkout.  So, before leaving I went to Roses, which I remembered from ten years ago has a bathroom in the front of the store.  They have a sign that says, "See Customer Service for Key to Bathroom".   When I got to customer service, there was a woman using a walked with a walking cast on her left leg. She had come for the bathroom key, and customer service didn't have one and knew nothing about one. She was yelling at them because Dollar Tree hadn't let her use the bathroom either.  I told her that the Food Lion across the mall, had a bathroom. She said she couldn't walk as far as that.  She told the employees in the Roses that she was going to urinate in their grass outside. They shrugged.

                       As I drove to the Food Lion, a store that the manager has told me is dying in that location, I noticed signs saying that public urination and defecation is prohibited there.  Welcome to the Third World.  I don't shop much outside my own county any more.  I order the few things I need online and they arrive at our office.  We pick them up and take them to the farm. I have no way of gauging if this is occurring at other locations here in the South. If it is, then it may end shopping as we know it in the US.  Why would women with young children ever take them to such a place ?   Why would anyone go to lunch in a shopping center like this ?   Why would one shop there and incur risk, when they could buy whatever it is online ?