Courtesy of Susan Sermoneta.
The day after Thanksgiving marks the quasi-official start to the holiday shopping season, and according to The Washington Post, plenty of people hit the stores on Black Friday. Sure, people didn’t spend as much as they have in the past, The Post reported, but at least they put in some face time at the local mall.
Or not. This photo, taken by visiting shutterbug Susan Sermoneta, shows downtown Silver Spring’s City Place Mall at 2:40 p.m. on Black Friday. Apparently they’ve decked the mall with boughs of holly, and workers at the Santa display have donned their gay apparel.
But Sermoneta’s title for this photo — “The ‘big’ shopping day?” — suggests slow going inside the mall. That, or a mid-afternoon nap for all those early birds who handled their business at 4:00 a.m.
Photo courtesy of Susan Sermoneta.
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This photo really does capture the problem that is Sh**ty Place Mall – it’s not a bad physical space (don’t get me wrong, it could definitely be improved but I don’t think my initial inclination is to blow it up), but it’s populated with incredibly crappy stores that no one wants to visit. I’m really at a loss to explain why the owners of the mall persist with sub-par tenants given the very positive demographics of the sorrounding neighborhoods.
This is a head-scratcher that has been talked to death on the various blogs, but until the owners either overhaul the tenants or close the mall we’ll continue to wonder why Sh**ty Place Mall is so sh**ty.
I dunno, I was there in the evening that day and it was pretty crowded, at least in the areas with actual stores like around the Marshalls and Payless and especially the food court.
Agree with Steve. It’s pretty telling when your ‘actual stores’ are a Marshalls and a Payless. City Place Mall is just such a… shame.
On the other hand, I spent much of Black Friday at Pentagon City, and felt that the crowds there were rather thin as well. Didn’t really feel the sales were so great this year, they seem to get worse and worse as time passes…
Ah, the magic of black & white photography. Were it not for the cheesy food court tables, that could almost be a shot of the lobby of some grand hotel.
they should bring slot machines to city place mall. Afterall, DTSS is designated for arts and entertainment.
Thanks for using my picture. I often visit family near Silver Spring, and we do end up there for the bookstore, movie theater (always a kiddy film), Whole Food, and ice cream places. And then that mall…. which I went into for the first (and last) time last week.
Should we compare with Montgomery Mall that was packed to the gills on Black Friday? Perhaps it’s because MM has, like, good stores and stuff?
City Place is a waste of retail space. It truly has nothing of value. Steve and Barry’s was marginally acceptable – it was a great place to get T-shirts and work out clothes. But that’s gone now…