Austinist: Vacancy at Highland Mall

richard

Wed, 23 May 2007 10:21:20 -0600

Well adding a walmart will not help at all. Will kinda devalue the area greatly. More than what it is. Honestly I just despise walmart and think it's the church for stepping down in the quality of life!

ol'pappy

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:43:28 -0600

I don't get my car broken into because it's kinda hard to break into a Cap Metro bus. I'm not saying that it doesn't suck to work in the mall. I'm just saying that if you think Highland Mall is scary, you might as well just drop out of society and live on a mountain somewhere. Plus, I used to work at an elementary school and cars got broken into all the time. It happens.

Dollar Wells

Tue, 22 May 2007 16:52:38 -0600

Word to Shilli – aside from all the runoff and shit poisoning its namesake waterway, Barton Creek is the gulliest. Highland has gone downhill in recent years, but it ain't like The Wire in there either. It's fascinating from a sociological standpoint, watching what was one of the city's more upscale malls limp towards the end of its life. They say Wal-Mart/Big Boxes have only a 10 year life span – any idea on your average mall's existence?

jooley ann

Tue, 22 May 2007 16:00:54 -0600

Oh man, I am with Grape Ape on BCS. The snooty, rarified air in that place -- and Lake Creek -- is cloying. And the unbelievably obnoxious attitude of the monied teens is more than I can stand. I refuse to go to any mall that has a "Build a Bear" franchise. Ugh. Give me good ol' Highland any day over that crap.

alison

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:49:19 -0600

prefect! i love this solution! thank you rick perry (and grape ape) for helping me answer all my problems.

Grape Ape

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:43:23 -0600

Alison, imagine if you all had guns. See, problem solved and you could be happy working at HM. Rick Perry has a solution for everything, I just now realized his plan for "a gun for everyone" would be beneficial to employee retention programs and would turn HM and other malls like it into shopping Meccas. Everyone, seriously, how brilliant is that guy?

alison

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:02:05 -0600

well, irrational it may be to you, but when you have to deal with the security guards giving you lists of people on a weekly basis who are banned from the mall for disorderly conduct/ fighting/ theft/ etc, when you have mult. employees get there cars broken into, when you have to deal with the riots last april where there were people fighting throughout the mall, when you have a shooting take place (and i think 1 shooting is more than enough to be upset about), you would not want to work in that type of environment either. would any of the rest of you really want to work in that type of workplace? is that what goes on in your office?

Grape Ape

Tue, 22 May 2007 13:40:43 -0600

All malls suck - especially BCS, can you really be serious about Gadzooks and Aberzombie ruling?

shilli

Tue, 22 May 2007 13:05:22 -0600

Alison, really? What's the last time someone was shot at Highland Mall? It seems safe enough to me (I can't really think of anywhere in Austin that I consider scary, but Highland Mall wouldn't have even crossed my mind as a possibility). I've only been a half-dozen times, but it strikes me a completely tame, lame, suburban shopping mall. I wouldn't be surprised by kids stealing crap, but shootings and gang fights? I would have thought it happened maybe once every few years. That said, Barton Square rules! Wells, you are the wind beneath my wings.

ol'pappy

Tue, 22 May 2007 13:03:58 -0600

That's strange since a quick look at google only has one shooting at Highland Mall and the "riots" of last April listed. So then I searched APD's incident report database and you know what? Nothing. So I have no idea why you think Highland Mall is so dangerous and won't go there, but that fear seems pretty irrational to me.

alison

Tue, 22 May 2007 12:49:55 -0600

as a former manager of a store in highland mall, i can tell you that the clientele in that mall is of a lower-income bracket than any of the malls in and around austin, and is primarily a young inner-city shopping center....and it shows in the shootings, gang fights, and theft that goes on there. you could not pay me enough money to work there again - to have to deal with thugs shooting each other directly above my store, or a car driving through an entrance to steal basketball shoes before the mall opened.....no thank you! the mall management there have problems like crazy, but not nearly enough capital to do anything about them. i say good riddance to highland mall, and if anyone really needs/wants to go to a mall to shop, just head over to barton creek or lakeline and bask in the cleanliness of the mall and the polite shoppers.

dan

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:49:25 -0600

Agreed, Highland certainly has its own charm, a little throwback to the malls of the 80's (in my mind at least). My favorite store though is the "Custom Grillz" kiosk in the middle (I think I spelled it right). I don't think the big department stores are that bad, you can find some deals there sometimes. With that said, this would be a better spot for a (200,000 sq ft) WalMart, closer to a highway - but maybe not the right demographic for an urban upscale WalMart. But really, there is no good place for a 200,000 sq ft WalMart...

ol'pappy

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:07:47 -0600

Yeah, I can honestly say I have never been scared to go to Highland Mall. Scout's honor. I like arguing with the people at the potato place in the food court about how they charge you 50 cents for a to-go container and a dollar for "extra toppings" that are clearly part of the potato on the menu. They never back down. There's something comforting about that.

jooley ann

Tue, 22 May 2007 10:59:31 -0600

Indeed, ol'pappy. I ain't skeered! I love that mall. The big stores all suck, but the mall's got, like, Godiva. And Aveda. Plus a couple of those smelly-bath-salts shops. And place you can actually get a new watch band for all sorts of watches. Oh, and a smoothie joint in the food court that keeps changing names but still makes the same yummy smoothie. Did I mention Godiva?? Even tho' I go to the mall about twice/year, I still like Highland the best. I hope it doesn't die. Or get Walmarticized.

ol'pappy

Tue, 22 May 2007 10:36:32 -0600

The basic problem is the majority of customers are African-American and the Euro-Americans are scared shitless to go there. Speak for yourself kid.

ConanTheLibrarian

Tue, 22 May 2007 10:30:17 -0600

Well there is already a Wal-Mart SuperCenter less than 2 miles away at 1030 Norwood Park Blvd with a Target in-between. The Movie Theater was shut down last century. The basic problem is the majority of customers are African-American and the Euro-Americans are scared shitless to go there. Wal-mart would have to shut down the other SuperCenter to use Highland mall. Unlike Starbucks, they don't build within three blocks. If you Google "Wal-Mart Austin Texas" you'll see they do build near IH-35, so it is a possibility. Another possibility: Tear it all down and build a Section 8 High Rise for everyone pushed out by the gentrification in East Austin. A Ghetto with a view near public transit and the Greyhound station. That's it, round up all the homeless from under the bridges and force them into the new building, or the existing structure. Make Red River and 6th Street safe for touristas and drunken college students!

Dollar Wells

Tue, 22 May 2007 09:55:32 -0600

I was kickin' this meme back in January, son! Mon Jan 8, 4:49pm, to be precise: Wal-Mart Thought of the Day Just getting off the phone with a council member, I'm contemplative of long term planning for North Austin. With JC Penney gone, surrounding buildings boarded and disused, but commuter rail rounding the corner, how long can it be before Wal-Mart makes an offer on its next underutilized shopping center – in this case, Highland Mall? Wells Dunbar, Mon Jan 8, 4:49pm Ya Dig? (apologies if it's a double, but TypeKey no likey my linky)

heyzeus

Tue, 22 May 2007 09:26:21 -0600

It's a good location, but inner-city non-luxury malls are in the death throes all over the country. I Expect it to get remade into a "power center" with lots of big boxes and maybe a mega movie theatre.

philwest

Tue, 22 May 2007 08:39:05 -0600

The Austin Business Journal had an article about this in the past week -- there's a trend toward malls in decline in Austin.

JUBCHA

Tue, 22 May 2007 07:37:11 -0600

HOW MUCH IS RENT? I NEED A PLACE TO SLEEP.