I have to say that I hate NorthPark's expansion. What used to feel like a nice little sculpture garden with shops is now a sprawling mall and movieplex. And food court. A true teenopolis. Hate, hate, hate.
But it does have one huge advantage: no kiosks.
Honest to God. Have you been to the Galleria lately? Kiosks every couple of steps, which would be easy to ignore except for the kiosk vendors who are more than a little out of control. So aggressive. You can't go from Macy's to Nordstrom's without being accosted about hair extensions, jewelry cleaning or nail care and it's only by being rude can you get these people to back off.
How much revenue can these kiosks generate for the Galleria? Can it possibly be worth pestering shoppers in this way? Or is the Galleria such a tourist mall that management assumes there's no negative impact on repeat visits? Probably--tourists or not--the managers don't care.
Back to the NorthPark Starbucks! Both of them!
5 comments:
Mallification is the bane of modern existence. Also, the subject of a highly amusing new blog by a Brooklynite transplant to 90210. malled
That's a very good blog -- I'd never seen it so thanks! (I should have Googled "malled" before I posted.)
NorthPark had been an exception to mallification. It really was designed to showcase art as well as shops. As much as I hate the expansion, NorthPark is still superior to the kiosky Galleria.
NorthPark does so many things right it's easy to forgive its faults. The "CenterPark" is a nice feature, the mall's investment in real works of art, the mall's openness and relaxed ambiance.
Kiosks annoy me, but they make mall owners money. Even if they look like what they are (add-ons with little thought to how they fit into the mall's floorplan) and mostly sell crap. Or cellphones, which I guess are crap if you think about it...
The Galleria? I rarely go there. It's the mall that seems not to know what it wants to be when it grows up. Upscale, but with downscale fringe? Does it say something when I admit the best thing about the place is watching the little Zamboni resurface the ice rink?
I like the Starbucks by AMC Theaters in NorthPark the best; out of the way, and you can sit out on the patio on a nice day and enjoy.
Zelda Rose -- that's a great description of the Galleria. It DOES have a split personality.
Maybe I could forgive how ugly the kiosks are (why so they always looks like a wood-shop class creation?) but when kiosk people start accosting me, I'm out.
I like the AMC-Starbucks too!
I think all kiosks are made in the same factory in India, with wood taken from dismantled shipping crates...
And I hate those people too! The worst are the skin care people, who seem to enjoy leaping out at you and trying to squirt their product onto your body before you can tell them to go away. Next in line are the cellular phone sales people, who must be moonlighting from their jobs as used car salespeople.
And I had coffee at the AMC-Starbucks yesterday while trying to duck around the AFI Dallas hoopla.
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