@rjejr Eww...I liked Target the few times I've been in one....but IMO the "well lit white wall sanitarium" redesigns is what killed the shopping mall. Malls were cool. Darkly lit, dark colored and woodgrain aesthetics, campy storefronts, lots of neon, water features, dark slates, wood, kind of seedy, kind of an outdoor at night environment indoors during the day. They had events, shows, weird stores selling oddly specific things. It was interesting. A place to go to. Then in the 90's they turned them all into thousand megawatt fully daylit places with everything clad in shades of white minimalism filled with nothing but women's clothing stores, and the same 10 chains all owned by 3 parent companies everywhere. And just like that, the malls rotted and died.

Target is now emulating the mall model?! I mean why not just emulate the Sears model? It's faster.

Heck once Macy's is gone....what stores will there be? Walmart and Talbots? I'm not setting foot within 800 feet of one of those things.

Nah, no hookah joints around here, though there are smokes/tobacco stores around. Though now that I think about it the one tobacco store seems to be a "vaping" place of some sort now. So I don't know. Yeah it's a "nice" place...that's what's wrong with it. Back in the day it was rural. I didn't know it was rural I thought it was suburban. Apparently it was rural. There were farms and such around. Mostly empty forest. Slowly they've gentrified it, built over every inch of it. Lured companies in to "stimulate the economy." What they've built is a haven for the upper middle to lower upper classes. With a few multi-million dollar sprawling estates strewn through. I play Forza Horizon....it's kind of bland. All these Porches and Bimmers, and Lamborghinis.....it just looks like my commute. If there's not at least 6 of those at an intersection, something is wrong. Trouble is once those people move in and take over, you are expected, no MANDATED to keep up with their spending. Everything of theirs is always brand new and perfectly done, and so will yours be. They buy $14 sandwiches as a quick lunch and so will you, because business moves in to cater to where they can sell expensive things, so everything else leaves, by the time you're done, that's all that remains is a luxury lifestyle you can't afford but have to try. So I hide in a hole with video games That's the part nobody tells you. When the rich decide to take over your area, it's not coexistence, they take it over. And you are forced by simply having no other choice to live luxury even if you can't afford it. Heck, even home repairs cost a fortune....because the market here sustains it. So I just do hack-jobs myself

The stores around you sound actually interesting like normal people who don't take their dogs to the doggy daycare like children every day before taking them to the doggy bakery (not even joking) for a treat, in the back seat of their BMW M4 SUV (if they're taking the pauper's car today...) actually live there We sadly lack the porn stores on every corner but I dare not think what darker shadows are lurking for a bunch of well to do lawyers and global asset managers and such that's a lot worse than porn stores

I miss it how it used to be with rusting out farm tractors and random garbage in empty fields. Those were the good days. Send the rich people back to Malibu and Manhattan or wherever they came from. At least bring normal priced retailers and food stores back. They all close, and some haute cuisine/wine bar/ craft brewery place moves in.

Believe it or not my Gamestop is still there for now! Most of them closed. I guess game stores aren't fashionable. Even overpriced ones. I was in there at Switch launch and it was normal. I was in a few months later when Disgaia 5 released and half the store was clearanced Star Wars foam swords. At least they have puzzles and ice cube trays. It sounds like target doesn't.

Me? optimistic? I'm sorry you must have confused me with someone else. Thanos. Or Eeyore. I don't do optimism, it's all doom and gloom on worldview. I'm just perkily sarcastic about the fate of the world like an evil Vault Boy.