Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

SamSpade
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by SamSpade »

Brian Lutz wrote: August 18th, 2020, 9:03 am This past weekend I was at the Shops at South Town (formerly Southtowne Mall) in Sandy UT, and the mall seemed to be operating more or less normally, and seemed to be doing plenty of business. Almost everyone was wearing masks and distancing as appropriate, and a number of the smaller stores (places like Hollister, PacSun, etc.) had lines outside to enforce capacity limits. The Round 1 arcade also seemed to be operating more or less normally, although it wasn't all that crowded in there. There isn't a movie theater in the mall, but my understanding is that the theaters in Utah are also up and running with capacity limits and showing older films until new releases start again.
Off Topic
Salt Lake County has been fortunate and by putting in place a mask mandate early, the county has seen plateauing rates of the virus, similar to Oregon's data since the mandate was put in place (June 23 in most populous counties, July 1 statewide).

Utah's numbers look bad, but when you break out Salt Lake County you can see a trend.
Utah total cases
Utah data with Salt Lake County separated
I'm glad you could enjoy your time there, Mr. Lutz. It's a beautiful (although a bit hot) state.

Note: People that are 'personal liberty' fans and don't wish to wear masks for public health, I am not trying to spark debate, only providing the information I've seen.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

Many people are hesitant to go to movie theaters as these places will have many unmasked people eating, drinking, laughing, etc. If it were a mall, most people would be masked and you could move away from other people. Movie theaters recirculate the air inside and you breathe that air for 2 hours. That is dangerous. The cruise ship passengers caught COVID-19 from the shared air conditioning sytem. Very few places will ever pay for expensive MERVE-13 air filters to filter out viruses. Those air filters are extremely rare outside of hospitals.

I am wary even of going inside stores, because the air conditioning will recirculate the virus. I saw one lady coughing up a storm at Walmart. I seriously believe that she had the virus and was shopping anyway. At least, have the decency to leave the store if you are coughing.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 19th, 2020, 12:02 am Many people are hesitant to go to movie theaters as these places will have many unmasked people eating, drinking, laughing, etc. If it were a mall, most people would be masked and you could move away from other people. Movie theaters recirculate the air inside and you breathe that air for 2 hours. That is dangerous. The cruise ship passengers caught COVID-19 from the shared air conditioning sytem. Very few places will ever pay for expensive MERVE-13 air filters to filter out viruses. Those air filters are extremely rare outside of hospitals.

I am wary even of going inside stores, because the air conditioning will recirculate the virus. I saw one lady coughing up a storm at Walmart. I seriously believe that she had the virus and was shopping anyway. At least, have the decency to leave the store if you are coughing.
Except in NY, where those better filters were required for malls to reopen (and may be for other similar places as they too open back up).

That coughing could be part of this, or just something normal - some people have issues (like dry throat) that can cause coughs on a regular basis. One might suspect if someone is doing this and not leaving, that it is something they get often, so they know it has nothing to do with the virus.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 19th, 2020, 12:02 am Many people are hesitant to go to movie theaters as these places will have many unmasked people eating, drinking, laughing, etc. If it were a mall, most people would be masked and you could move away from other people. Movie theaters recirculate the air inside and you breathe that air for 2 hours. That is dangerous. The cruise ship passengers caught COVID-19 from the shared air conditioning sytem. Very few places will ever pay for expensive MERVE-13 air filters to filter out viruses. Those air filters are extremely rare outside of hospitals.

I am wary even of going inside stores, because the air conditioning will recirculate the virus. I saw one lady coughing up a storm at Walmart. I seriously believe that she had the virus and was shopping anyway. At least, have the decency to leave the store if you are coughing.
Movie theaters seem like a horrible risk to me between the closeness, the long time period, the angling of the seats (stadium seating) to help spread germs all over the air even if people are isolated apart ... But I guess if people want to go to them... this will just spread this whole virus mess and all these ongoing restrictions out even longer. But at least the movie people will reopen and make, I assume, more money than they make being closed (though at reduced capacity I am not even so sure of this).
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

In California, indoor malls can now finally reopen. However, they can only operate at 25 percent capacity. Some counties are still restricting indoor malls from opening due to harsher county regulations.

I noticed that Sunvalley Mall in Concord, California is doing Outdoor Pop Up Shopping. Some stores are opening up booths outside of the mall. This is at an outdoor plaza, but not quite as bad looking as a parking lot sale.

Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, California has reopened its indoor Food Court for takeout only. At least, you can now go inside.

Indoor hair salons and barbershops are allowed to reopen.

Outdoor gyms are allowed.

I am shocked to finally be able to go inside an indoor mall in California again.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Except for maybe curiosity's sake, who's really going to want to go back to indoor malls given the circumstances? Long before this current health and safety emergency, how many discussions have there been on this board about dead or dying malls? More than a few correct. The point is people were moving away from malls as it is for maybe 10-15 years now and this has only sealed the fate of a lot of them. And to be honest, a walk through an indoor mall today can be a depressing experience with all the empty storefronts you encounter. It sometimes feels like walking down a climate controlled Main Street USA. I mean I can sit in my living room or in front of my computer and order pretty much anything I want with a few clicks and keystrokes and have it delivered right to my door. And I can do this anytime I darn well feel like it. Can I shop at a mall at 2:00 AM or some other ridiculous hour? Don't think so. About the only purpose malls serve today is to browse and check out potential purchases up close and then buy those goods online where you can almost always get a MUCH better price. Personally, I've only visited a mall once this year. It was back in January and I don't think I bought a thing. And I really have no plans to return anytime soon to ANY indoor mall either. Part of that is due to health concerns but it is also for another much simpler reason-they offer NOTHING I wish or need to purchase that I can't get somewhere else.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

The malls that had decent business before are now as empty as dead malls now. Where did all the customers go? The ones that were already dead, are really quiet now. Many stores have not even bothered to reopen even after the indoor malls reopened in California.

I have noticed even the outdoor malls were very dead. Malls are no longer popular places for young people to hang out. However, I did see a skate park near a mall with many kids late at night.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

It was 103 degrees and I was dying from the heat so I decided to go to Sunvalley Mall in Concord, California. The mall was not crowded at all. The stores had limits of about 11 people for the small stores and larger limits on chain stores.

The mall was stuffy and lukewarm. Are they trying to save money on air conditioning?
Sears closed their interior mall entrances. They had one single entrance on the far side of the store. It was very inconvenient to walk around the building in 100 degree heat just to get inside Sears.

JCPenney at least had one mall entrance and one parking garage entrance. The other doors were blocked with traffic barriers.

Some stores were still closed. Perhaps 60 percent of the stores were open. McDonald's and most restaurants were closed.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

That sounds exactly like the mall in Reno. In the case of JCP they have one exterior entry open and the mall entry open. In the case of Macys they have one exterior entry open and the mall entry at both locations in the mall. The only thing that has any significant amount of foot traffic seems to be the Cheesecake Factory (no clue why). The Round One (former Sears) seems to also have some traffic. JCP is dead. Macy's is having a trickle of traffic, but not as dead as JCP. Dick's is similar to Macy's; a trickle of traffic.
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Re: Indoor Vs. Outdoor Malls & Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

The malls are so dead in California that the Go! Calendars store is still selling calendars for 2020. It is as if the store was frozen in time since February.

JCPenney was selling winter clothes from last winter on clearance.
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