Hey Steve,

Just read your posted article about retail closures and can verify it's all
true. I think I mentioned once before what I do what for a living, but
anyway - here's the comment I left on that article:

Im not in sales, but I do work at a fancy outlet mall in east Birmingham,
AL things were slow before, but now, after the holiday season, theyve
completely dropped-off the deep end during the week. January is chronically
slow and it can always get worse, but this is unnatural and has anxiety
levels through the roof among employees.

Weekends still see a bump in traffic, but not nearly significant enough and
the other 5-days are pathetic; out on patrol, you usually see a person or
two wandering about in the distance every once in a while, someone will
eventually ask, at times

Hey, wheres the _____ store?
Sorry, they closed after Christmas
Well, what about _____?
Uh, closed
Seriously, well where is the _____?
Theyve been gone for a year

We had 4 retailers begin leaving immediately after the season (2 of which
were on your list) and only 1 is supposedly slated for replacement. Theres
an incoming tourist trap pipe dream supposed to be constructed on the
property, but thats been rumored for years now.

When I did work sales, it was at malls down in Montgomery, our sterling
Capitol city. By the time I arrived in town there was already a huge indoor
mall that had the ghetto grow-up around it and had run out every serious
retailer, then the same began happening to another on the north side. Ever
visit a mall where entire wings are darkened and vacant while 2/3 of the
stores you do pass are local owned hell holes reselling newly monogrammed
Wal*Mart merchandise or handmade beaded necklaces or stolen merchandise
from elsewhere? Thats about the time people start getting shot at night and
taking your own vehicle to work is ill-advised. I recently heard that even
the swanky outdoor mall on the east side, there too, was beginning to see
much of the same.

Loitering leads to shoplifting, which leads to vehicular B&E, to muggings,
to car jackings, to murders around the time the legit street gangs begin to
show-up. I see people strapped at the mall, now-a-days, I dont even say
nothing because theyre clearly either perfectly sane given the
circumstances or completely insane and looking for trouble dark clouds
gathering S.I.

Jan 14, 2015