Retail Wasteland

Driving back from Nashville yesterday we stopped in Cookville to get gas and let Pea run wild through their mall. What we found was Zombie Mall. It was like something out of a Cormac McCarthy book. All the stores were empty with the gates pulled down, no one else inside but a couple of mall walkers. It smelled like an old country church, but you expected to be attacked at any moment by an undead congregation.

The only safe haven in the mall was a GNC at the far end of the mall. Why it was still open I don’t know…probably just to spite the owners into keeping every door at the mall unlocked. The only “big” store, JC Penny’s, wouldn’t even let you enter from the “mall”. You had to go outside and back in.

It would be cool if someone took these old retail spaces and put them to use with stuff like indoor skate parks, soccer fields, indoor playgrounds, etc. I mean, I’m not doing that with my money, but it would be cool if someone else did.