August 2, 2006
Shop till You Drop, Cause Driving Home Will be a Bitch!
*This post comes from Austinist contributor Elizabeth S.*
As long as you've lived in Austin, surely you have made a trip down to the outlet malls in San Marcos. . . or at least know someone who has. Well, tomorrow the Austin area will have its own outlet mall (in Round Rock), just in time for the tax-free weekend (known to us as the weekend when we can afford to buy shoes from Instep)! The Round Rock mall will include an Anne Taylor Factory Store, a Gap Outlet, and a Michael Kors store. While it is referred to as an outlet mall, it appears that a good number of the stores will not be actual "outlets". So the prices won't be as discounted as you might expect.
All weekend long the new outlet mall is sure to be amass of people eager to buy their Calvin Klein and Billabong tax-free. We're eager to visit, but we'll wait a few weeks for the crowds to die down . . . at least a little bit.
Round Rock Premium Outlets
4401 North IH-35
Round Rock, TX 78664
Mon-Sat 10am-9pm, Sun 10am-6pm
*Image (c) 3blindmice*
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this post was even better the second time!
Whee! I wouldn't classify either Round Rock or San Marcos as the Austin area. Damn yankees can't get enough of their big-box retailing. They'd pave their own houses to put in a wal*mart if they'd be allowed to live in it.
Tim - I don't classify San Marcos as Austin-area, but Round Rock has pretty much merged with North Austin/Pflugerville at this point. That doesn't mean that someone from Round Rock is allowed to say they're from Austin, though. =)
and Jack - we've been having some, um, technical difficulties lately, so that's why the post was accidentally up twice. Oops.
LOL - How can north, very north RR be considered Austin area? It takes me longer to get up there than it does for me to get to San Marcos and I believe the mileage is more to that area of RR and I'm just south of downtown Austin.
Round Rock needs to have its own identity. They are part of the Dell area, but not the Austin area.
Dell only exists 20 feet over the county line or so for tax purposes. And soon we will be known as SanAusRockTonio. No longer will we be known as DallasJr.
Oh, and it also depends on where in Austin you live. If you live south then yes SM is closer, if you live further north then RR would be closer.
That's kind of the point I was making. As you mention, RR is closer to north Austin and is called the Austin Area whereas San Marcos is actually closer to South Austin and the downtown actual Austin area, yet we do not refer to SM or even Kyle as the Austin Area. It's just strange that a place further away from the center of the city is consider part of its area when other places that are closer are not. If it weren't for Dell, RR would still be the little shithole town is it at heart.
The photo in this post can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/f-remolo/141530332/