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Quote: AZDuffman

Until yesterday I worked in a dead mall. .

I thought you delivered luggage for
a living.

Quote: AZDuffman

BTW: what is a nice vacation spot in NC? They are now higher up on places I would want to visit.

Tail of the Dragon is there. Tried finding a vid, but couldn't find one without "crash" in the title. Rent a Miata and go ape.

Other than that, iono. I stay in the Swansboro / Cape Carteret area. There's certainly tons of state parks, plenty of golf (real and mini), the ocean and rivers to swim / kayak / fish. ATV'ing, I hear, is pretty great. Shooting ranges offer a plethora of toys only found in free states (it's where I got the parts to make my full auto =p).

Fishing off the beach while watching the F-16's do their thing out of Lejeune is pretty cool. I wasted most a day doing that once. And there are a lot of coastal forts open to the public. I thought it was pretty cool, standing in an old cannon keep overlooking the bay, imagining what it was like back in the day.

It has Concord, the capitol of NASCAR. Drive down the road and you'll pass 4-5-6 different team's garages. Always something going on, whether dirt or asphalt.

Reckon Doc would be the man to ask.

Tail of the Dragon has its own website with links to area places and videos. Even has a motorcycle motel.... Your "room' has its own garage for working on your bike lock everything up at night and its all safe even if tools and parts are lying about.

Quote: Fleastiff

Tail of the Dragon has its own website with links to area places and videos. Even has a motorcycle motel.... Your "room' has its own garage for working on your bike lock everything up at night and its all safe even if tools and parts are lying about.

It was solidly on my "must-go-to" list for quite a few years, especially the bike days. Not sure why we never just up and went. Lol, just remembered while I was typing it... we were married at the time. That's why =p XD

I guess I'm growing up. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to bomb it, nosiree, ain't saying that at all. But it's 30mph the whole way, and you know a famous road like that (one so famous it has a parts tree) is gonna be patrolled like crazy. I'll pay $300 for a FULL DAY of unlimited Watkins Glen hot laps. I ain't paying $300 for a quick stint up some public road, and that's at least the fine you're getting when you get caught hooning.

Of course, watching the video, it looks almost indistinguishable from some of the roads through Letchworth or Allegany parks from up here. And those are quite enjoyable toting along at 25-30. I wouldn't drive there just for it, but I'd go if in the area.

Quote: rxwine

Our local mall is probably 80% ever changing names of clothes stores. 99% of the time I am not looking for clothes. It doesn't look like it's dying but it's usually not super busy either, unless it's around Christmas.

If I go there, it's usually Sears or Starbucks, or maybe the food court.

The one by my parent's house when it opened was one of the largest in the USA, 5 department stores, numerous smaller stores, and just the plain place to be. In the early to mid 1980s, oh my, an hour to drive thru the parking lot. The stores that are in it now would not have gotten a lease back then. There was a sort of minimal level you had to have. Stores had to remodel every 5 years or less. Now I am soon going to be telling the nieces and nephews about how it was once *the* place as it looks as though it was built abandoned, same as when I was a kid there the folks told us about the old shopping districts were *the* place when they were kids.

Sears?! Now there is a sad story of the decline of a once great place. I wish I had the capital to short that stock until it dies in a few years.

Quote: AZDuffman

The one by my parent's house when it opened was one of the largest in the USA,

A mall was just the equivalent of the
stores on Main St, all in one place
under a roof. Now malls have been
replaced the by the 'everything in one
store under one roof'. You can even
buy food at Target now. If you have a
Target, a Walmart superstore, a Costco,
a Lowes, and a Big Lots, you have it
all.

Quote: Evenbob

A mall was just the equivalent of the
stores on Main St, all in one place
under a roof. Now malls have been
replaced the by the 'everything in one
store under one roof'. You can even
buy food at Target now. If you have a
Target, a Walmart superstore, a Costco,
a Lowes, and a Big Lots, you have it
all.

Malls lost their base piece by piece. Used to always be 2 or even 3 record stores in a decent mall. A Radio Shack that opened a second location for Christmas. An organ store, a computer store, etc, All of those are gone. Add it up and it is 8-10 stores but that is 10% or more of the base. How many department stores are no more? You always had 1-2 local chains plus a Sears or JCP. Now half of that is gone most places. Sears and Macy's are closing themselves down to pieces. In 20 years the only Macy's may be in Manhattan. Nothing replaced it for the malls.

The future to me is mixing the use. Add some smallish restaurants, some office space, even condos. The one I talked about earlier is 86 acres of parcel. No one thing will save it. Nationwide I estimate we may need to kill off half the mall space we have in stock.

Quote: AZDuffman

Malls lost their base piece by piece. .

I was just looking at Wiki. Shopping malls
have been around for hundreds of years.
But fully enclosed malls only since 1957.
In 1960 the law changed and investors
were allowed to form trusts and malls
and fast food chains took off like crazy.

I never heard 'mall' much on TV till the
80's. Then there was always a daughter
on a sitcom who spent all her time at
the 'mall'. I still hear it on Modern Family,
they've had many ep's that were in malls.

The largest enclosed mall is in China,
10 million sq ft. I can't even imagine.

Quote: Evenbob

The largest enclosed mall is in China,
10 million sq ft. I can't even imagine.

10mm square feet is, like, 1,000 times the size of my town. I think.

Quote: Face

Quote: Evenbob

The largest enclosed mall is in China,
10 million sq ft. I can't even imagine.

10mm square feet is, like, 1,000 times the size of my town. I think.

Here's the kicker. It has 2600 leaseable
spaces, and only 47 are leased. Since
2005. Very typical for China, they have
whole modern small towns where nobody
lives.