Merle Hay Mall

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by athena53

Just there today- the granddaughters like the coin-operated cars, planes, etc. in the mall but we were disappointed to find on my last visit in May that the Pizza Hut inside Target is gone. Selection of ready-to-eat food in Target also sparse- I always liked picking up healthier stuff for myself when the girls had pizza. Chicago Pizza now gone; Five Below will replace it. DIL says that Flix Brewhouse has helped bring in traffic but it's pretty darn quiet during the day.

Thanks for the update. It's such a mixed bag of emotions for me when I visit....part of me loves to reminisce about growing up in the area and MHM being such a gathering place for me and many of my friends. But then when I see empty store after empty store and virtually NONE of the same stores still in business, it saddens me. With the ones still open, most are now large corporate ventures (Kohl's, Hot Topic, GNC) with virtually no locally owned places any more.

[rayman29]

Originally Posted by Florida2014

Thanks for the update. It's such a mixed bag of emotions for me when I visit....part of me loves to reminisce about growing up in the area and MHM being such a gathering place for me and many of my friends. But then when I see empty store after empty store and virtually NONE of the same stores still in business, it saddens me. With the ones still open, most are now large corporate ventures (Kohl's, Hot Topic, GNC) with virtually no locally owned places any more.

Compared to most malls, Merle Hay has a lot local business. Malls tend to attract national tenants because most malls are owned by a few companies and stores can negotiate for better rent if they have stores at multiple malls. The fact that Merle Hay is and has always been family owned has always helped with local businesses in that respect. I think is is their best bet going forward because most chains have either closed at Merle Hay or avoided it altogether.

Totally unrelated, but I’ve looked back at some of my older posts. Sorry for all the confusing sentences. I really needed to proof-read before I posted. Hopefully I make a lot fewer mistakes than I did in the comments I made several years ago.