Confessions of a Suburban Mall Employee......

I loved the mall.... When I was a teenager. I even worked at our local (read incredibly small one) mall on the coast when I was in High School. When I was in college a great time could be had at both the Salem Center and Lancaster malls, spending money I did not earn (but am now paying back) as freely and I received it. Then I grew up.
When I say I grew up I mean that I started appreciating the smaller thing in life. I don't mean I stopped shopping, hell no! I began to support local businesses. I have not been inside a Wal-Mart in almost 10 years, I grocery shop at our neighborhood locally owned grocery store, Powell's Books and the library are the best places to get reading material. I live in an area of the city that is such a well defined community that I can go the whole weekend without driving and yet I can still watch a movie, go out to eat, take the cat to the vet and visit our local yarn shop. I really developed a social concsience, our local ecnomy is the key to our future. And then I went to work for a (fabulous) Corportation, I know it seems a little hypocritical. But when you have a diabetic husband health benefits become really important.
I started out working in community stores, I built some valuable relationships not only with the people I worked with but also the customers. I have always worked in customer service oriented jobs, the best part is getting customers that come to your store because you work there. I spent a little over a year in the community and then bad things happened with our economy. My business was not immune the financial crisis so our stores re-structured themselves.....and I got moved to the mall. A friend of mine (also in the biz) text messaged me the day we got the news and said good luck at world war III. I really hoped she would be wrong.....