The last thing the Echelon Mall had going for it, was that one of the two remaining anchor stores was Boscov's a somewhat popular store that you couldn't get a deptford.
That will come to an end this coming fall now that Boscov's plans to move into the Deptford Mall. I assume they will take up the empty Strawbridges store. I highly doubt that that Echelon Boscov's will update themselves at all. So, shoppers will just go to the NEW Boscov's not the OLD one.
Months ago it was annoucned the mall would be scaled down and part of the land would be used for a super market, and a strip of stores (huh?) in addition to over priced town houses.
You would think if everything was going to be revamped new blood would have gone into the mall. Instead the opposite has happened. The remaining rats are leaping from the ship. The Mildly popular Ritz Camera Shop closed a few months ago. In addition CVS and Gap Kids are pulling out at the end of the month and Radioshack is rumored to be not far behind.
In addition the Mall must have totally thrown in the towel on the food court, because a jewerly store from the empty part of the mall will soon take up long vacant food establishments.
Things have gotten so bad, that my friend Rick works in the mall tells me that the McCdonalds opens up basically whenever the person with the key to the fast food place rolls out of bed. Leaving customers facing a pulled down gate most days well into the lunch hours.
Most stores have cut their work force to the bare bones and have two or as few as one person working. A common sight is a gate pulled down and a message saying "Be Back Soon" on the store.
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I know I said it before, but it bears repeating: the mall we knew and loved is already long gone. Time for us all to let it go. [TL]
This mall could have made it if they had managed this better. The marketing people should never have hired a secretary to run this mall. What a joke. Mofett Welsh from preit should be ashamed of herself for poor management. This is the lowest form of embarrassment.
I'm sure she didn't help at all, but I still feel that simple geography doomed the mall.
For one thing, there are no major roads nearby. Cherry Hill and Moorestown share Rt. 38. Deptford has 42. Echelon has Burnt Mill and Somerdale Roads, and those come off of less than ideal roads themselves!
Also, there is no peripheral retail presence with which to form a symbiotic relationship. All of the other nearby malls have thriving retail operations surrounding them. What does Echelon have? A school, homes and a YMCA. There's no sideshow at this circus.
The retail world has changed in the last 35 years, turning Echelon from a novelty to an anachronism. I remember four malls near me in the seventies: Cherry Hill, Deptford, Moorestown and Echelon. Since then a ton of retail has moved in around all but Echelon. Places like Cherry Hill and Eastgate Plazas, to name but two. A mall may have been a unique draw on its own back then, but today the norm is to have more places to shop nearby. Echelon does not and cannot offer the same. It cannot compete as it is and where it is.
But who knows? Maybe if the plan we saw last year comes to pass, the mall will go on in a reduced fashion. Either way, "our" mall left us long ago. Eagle Plaza and its surroundings have taken its place. [TL]
Preit should be sued and they may have a major lawsuit for the choices they made in their marketing.
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