Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Thu 20 Nov 2008 07:51:00p, Terry Pulliam Burd told us...
>
>> The DH, as some of you may recall, is a bankruptcy lawyer (commercial
>> not personal). I received the following from one of his colleagues in
>> email this evening. I haven't vetted it personally, but the source is
>> very reliable:
>>
>>> Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling
>>> the gift cards through the holidays even though the cards will be
>>> worthless January 1.
>>>
>> Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
>>
>> --
>
> Good Gawd! The malls will be empty. I could see many such malls
> simply closing all their doors.


Wayne, it was many years after you were in Memphis but the Mall of Memphis
was the largest shopping mall they ever had. It even had an indoor ice
skating rink. Dorothy Hamill performed on that rink when the mall opened !
It was two levels and had tons of stores. That may not sound like much to
some people but for the time, in Memphis, it was a big deal. You could buy
anything you wanted. Remember the old store (not local) Spencer's Gifts?
You could buy gag gifts and all sorts of useless crap there. It was fun!
Well, the Mall of Memphis shut its doors in 2003 (on Christmas Eve, no
less).

Well, the Mall of Memphis was razed. The DMV tried opening a small
substation there first so people could take driving tests in the parking
lot. That didn't last long. I think the fact that they had several
shootings and erected guard towers had something to do with its demise. LOL
I don't know if there is anything there now other than a vast empty parking
lot.

Meanwhile back at my "current" ranch the Hilton chain is throwing up more
hotels around Beaufort. Yeah, just what we need down here in a nice
peaceful place... tourists and more traffic. Heh. I guess those tourists
don't realize there are only two bridges and one of them (the Woods Bridge
from downtown Beaufort) was shut down due to mechanical problems causing one
hell of a problem for people who live and work here.

At least the people here fought the good fight against getting another
WalMart out in this direction. As one concerned citizen was quoted at a
city coucil meeting (I'm paraphrasing because this was months ago and I
can't find the quote) "You get all 25 checkout lanes at the existing WalMart
manned and people standing in line at all of them. Then we'll talk about
putting in another WalMart." Good answer!

Now the same developer wants to put in a Dollar Store. Okay, I love my
dollar stores. As long as it doesn't take up 295,000 sq. feet and clog
traffic. But that's still not what the property is zoned for.

Jill