I Miss a Decent Mall

The internet has been very, very good to me. I met Jon Dean through a Yahoo personal ad seven years ago. Also I've bought some fantastic things online. Now I buy virtually my entire wardrobe on the internet. However there are times when I miss the simple pleasure of actual browsing in brick & mortar stores. Not that I'd necessarily buy anything, but just the leisurely act of window shopping and "people watching." A place where one can sip a cappuccino for an hour and strike up a chat with someone. Maybe even get a date if one is single.

The Bay Area is a great place to live. Unfortunately there are not any good malls or shopping plazas to window shop and "people watch." Virtually all of the middle-class malls have the same national chains and are overrun by teenagers. Union Square in SF is a big disappointment as it is basically an assortment of national chains as well. The few independent stores are nothing special. The only somewhat pleasant shopping plaza in this area is Crocker Galleria in SF's Financial District, but even this place is lacking in terms of stores. There really isn't much to see there and it is more of a business crowd.

The worst shopping plaza or mall of all in the Bay Area is the Stanford Shopping Center. On paper, this place should be superb. It is large, outdoors, well-maintained and has a great number of stores. In reality, this place is a total flop. I've been there about five times and always walked away disappointed. One horrible experience happened last year with my friend Klara. Here is the story written on my old blog. Much like Palo Alto itself, the shopping plaza lacks any personality. Moreover, there is really nothing to buy here despite the presence of well-known stores.

Arizona used to have some wonderful malls. The old Camelview Plaza in Scottsdale was very nice before it merged into a mega-mall with Fashion Square. Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix was my favorite place. An outdoor mall with a nice coffee shop, book store and interesting shops. I haven't been there in almost ten years so I don't know how it has changed.

For the record, I never did get a date at either Camelview Plaza or Biltmore Park.