287 night in the woods - shopping malls versus internet

Dear Readers,

I dashed into the mall with excitement, yelling Fort Luceeeeeeeeeeenne!!! Bea casually walked in behind me.

My excitement quickly dissipated when I looked at what was in front of us. I lowered my arms and asked what happened? She said it was the internet.

The sign for the mall looked like it had the same font as the logo for the T.V. show Friends. Maybe it was that long ago it was a new thing...

I ran up the stairs and said we had the internet when we used to come here. What happened to the carousel? Bea followed me up the steps at her own pace and said she guessed they sold it. I asked who buys a carousel and she said it was nobody who came here.

I asked what happened to the book store and she said it was also the internet.

I asked what happened to the arcade?! and she said she was going to make a sign that says the internet and she was going to hold it up until I was done asking.

Bea walked ahead. I couldn't do any running or jumping. It was like I was inside that mine again :(

I stood in front of a shuttered outlet and asked what happened to... before Bea interrupted me to say internet.

Dollar Empire was still here! With their sign that said Everything on sale forever! I pointed this out and Bea said this was one thing the internet couldn't compete with. I said "I guess."

I walked ahead of her and saw URev0luti0n. It had a little red star in the U. It had signs that said win tickets to see Yearbook Crush, inquire within :) and 20% off on tshirts. I stopped dead in my tracks and was like omg!, happy to see this was still here! Bea laughed and said yeah, this old thing. I said I could feel the edginess from here. She said just looking in there made her feel old. Aw...

I told her we were so gonna do this! She said there was no way she was going in there. I brought her in with me anyway!

Regarding the very real thing of malls dying because of the internet, it is genuinely troubling. I could write for ages about it but generally I think local physical storefronts are very important. Shopping on the internet can be great but it has all these dumb charges and you get monitored for everything. I'm not ready to give everything to the internet.

When we entered the store, the easy listening muzak of the mall became slow loud riffs and it was a lot darker.