So this past weekend we were looking to upgrade my special lady's phone and a logical place to start was the Verizon spot in the mall on Church Street. Except for the small detail that they had just moved to the University Mall in SoBu. Shit. Ok, whatever, we can cruise over there. When we moved back to Burlington some years ago the U-Mall looked like it was straight out of a zombie movie... or Iran. It was about 70% dark w/ bad lighting, yards between open stores and construction for construction's sake everywhere. It was a huge space that had a Sears, and Country Buffet, and maybe a seasonal calendar shop open. It was depressing. The mall came up as a selling point for a commercial real estate deal proposed to my company from a guy down in NYC. I asked him if he had ever been to the mall and laughed at him. Fast forward to a couple years ago and I needed a pair of sneakers. The nearest place I could find an Olympia Sports or similar spot was the good old U-Mall. It was now probably 88% occupied and a few large stores had moved into the empty spaces including a Kohls. The lighting was still bad, the stores were still mostly transitional, the place was pretty sparse with shoppers and it was still a little depressing as malls go but it was somewhat useful and I was able to buy sneakers. Well, when we went in the other day it was a revelation. The place was totally different. Granted it is the holidays but it was packed w/ people. The place was bight and well lit and probably close to 95% occupied w/ the only dead spaces out in random corridors to the parking lot. There were big well know stores as well as kiosks of every type. You need a cell phone? No problem. A red sox hat, t-shirt, mug, bumper sticker, floor mat, full body suit? No problem. Some random piece of goofy clothing? They have got you covered! My favorite stores were the hippy clothing stores w/ 240 wool hats and a shit ton of those weirdly cut sweat shirt type things made out of rope... and the dollar+ store which featured calendars, old people collectibles, and bongs. Sure, why not? Who doesn't want a miniature porcelain schnauzer and a bong for $2? We did not get the phone but you have come a long way U-Mall!!!
In an aside note... I was recently looking at my stats for this blog and I am pretty disturbed at what searches have brought people to my little stitch and bitch. I am not sure how "young Japan boy" is possibly incorporated in any one post in this blog but it is apparently a pretty popular search topic and will probably create a spike in views on this post as well. Of course the second highest hit rate is for a post entitled "Here them ring, ding a ling". I am pretty sure you can figure out what search term is bringing folks to that post. Does this make me feel a little not awesome? Yup it sure does. I would think more people would find me looking for "U-Mall", "F*** you", "shitty teenage girls driving while texting", maybe even "supper club". Are people not searching for supper clubs on the internet?!?!?! Well then I am not sure what to think.
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