296 replies to this topic

[ct36]

Skyybutter, on 24 April 2011 - 04:50 PM, said:

however we feel about CM , it ain't goin nowhere... Saturdays are an absolute nightmare around there. Simon has brought some more upscale outlet and factory stores to the mix..

Absolutely! haha Considering it's NC's most visited tourist attraction it absolutely is going nowhere!

[drumsy]

mallguy, on 13 April 2011 - 07:40 PM, said:

I agree with you- it has plenty of "practical" retail.

I checked the directory and it doesn't have a Chick-fil-A though- that's almost unheard of for a Southern mall. Nor does it have any "destination" restaurants.  Dining, I agree with stevenrocks.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the area, but there is a Chick-fil-A across Concord Mills Blvd from the mall.  On the mall side of I-85, there is a TGI Fridays, Sticky Fingers, Dennys, Razzoo's, On The Border, Applebees, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Burger King, McAllisters, The Mayflower, and many other smaller restaurants.

[Skyybutter]

drumsy, on 25 April 2011 - 11:37 AM, said:

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the area, but there is a Chick-fil-A across Concord Mills Blvd from the mall.  On the mall side of I-85, there is a TGI Fridays, Sticky Fingers, Dennys, Razzoo's, On The Border, Applebees, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Burger King, McAllisters, The Mayflower, and many other smaller restaurants.

  I kinda think of CM as the major player in a huge retail,restaurant/hotel mecca. Across from CM you now have Wal-Mart and Lowes Hardware. Also 3 new apartment communities have opened over the past 3 years so you now have 4 large apartment communities within walking distance of the mall totaling over 1000 units. So CM is attracting more residential. Also Highland Creek is just a few miles away.
  On the other side of 85 you have Great Wolf, Harley-Davidson, Carabbas, and a slew of other restaurants. Not to mention probably 10-15 hotels including The Embassy. Then throw in the Speedway and Drag Strip (which constantly has events) adn you really have a huge entertainment area. Oh I forgot about the Ampitheater which is maybe 4 miles away. It is a huge draw for many things in that area. And just to think I can remember driving by Concord Mills as they were building it and thinking wow...that is gonna be massive.

[mallguy]

drumsy, on 25 April 2011 - 11:37 AM, said:

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the area

I am.  It's still almost unheard-of for an A-list mall in the South not to have a Chick-fil-A.

McAlister Square, where the first freestanding CFA was (and which wasn't even an A-list mall), had a Chick-fil-A inside the mall and a freestanding one in the parking lot.

[Skyybutter]

mallguy, on 25 April 2011 - 06:27 PM, said:

I am.  It's still almost unheard-of for an A-list mall in the South not to have a Chick-fil-A.

McAlister Square, where the first freestanding CFA was (and which wasn't even an A-list mall), had a Chick-fil-A inside the mall and a freestanding one in the parking lot.

I agree most malls in the south DO have Chick-fil-a's. I did a search of food options at Discover Mills which is in Lawrenceville GA(Atlanta  suburb) and suprisingly they do not have one either.  Why am I suprised? Chick-fil-a is headquartered in College Park GA(also Atlanta suburb).
My thought is that it may have something to do with the old owner of the mills malls didn't want a restaurant that is always closed on Sundays like chic-fil-a is. Anyway, at least the eating options at the mall are better then they used to be.

[AuLukey]

Skyybutter, on 25 April 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

I agree most malls in the south DO have Chick-fil-a's. I did a search of food options at Discover Mills which is in Lawrenceville GA(Atlanta  suburb) and suprisingly they do not have one either.  Why am I suprised? Chick-fil-a is headquartered in College Park GA(also Atlanta suburb).
My thought is that it may have something to do with the old owner of the mills malls didn't want a restaurant that is always closed on Sundays like chic-fil-a is. Anyway, at least the eating options at the mall are better then they used to be.

That's a valid point and it looks like it's true at every Mills mall.  I've looked through the directory of a handful of other complexes that are of equal "splendor" and they too do not include a Chick-fil-a.

On that note, the idea C-f-a being the indicator of an A-list mall may have a few small cracks as Aventura Mall in Miami (which makes Southpark look like Eastland) also does not have a C-f-a on the interior.  No, I didn't pick a random mall out of the hat, I have been there several times in the past and couldn't recall it having a chickfil-a, so I looked it up.

On a side note, I think it would be funny for Chick-fil-a's in nice areas to change their names to "Chic"-fil-a.  Just a thought.

Back to the topic though.  I went into the new DKNY a couple days ago.  Their prices are dramatically lower right now because they are doing a grand opening sale of 50% off.  But their normal prices seem to parallel standard DKNY prices.  Picked up a t-shirt for the hell of it and the girl waiting on us took the time to wrap the shirt, bag it, and carry it around the counter to us.  While nice, it seemed so out of place after having been in Concord Mills for about an hour at that point.

[ct36]

aussie luke, on 26 April 2011 - 09:12 AM, said:

That's a valid point and it looks like it's true at every Mills mall.  I've looked through the directory of a handful of other complexes that are of equal "splendor" and they too do not include a Chick-fil-a.

On that note, the idea C-f-a being the indicator of an A-list mall may have a few small cracks as Aventura Mall in Miami (which makes Southpark look like Eastland) also does not have a C-f-a on the interior.  No, I didn't pick a random mall out of the hat, I have been there several times in the past and couldn't recall it having a chickfil-a, so I looked it up.

On a side note, I think it would be funny for Chick-fil-a's in nice areas to change their names to "Chic"-fil-a.  Just a thought.

Back to the topic though.  I went into the new DKNY a couple days ago.  Their prices are dramatically lower right now because they are doing a grand opening sale of 50% off.  But their normal prices seem to parallel standard DKNY prices.  Picked up a t-shirt for the hell of it and the girl waiting on us took the time to wrap the shirt, bag it, and carry it around the counter to us.  While nice, it seemed so out of place after having been in Concord Mills for about an hour at that point.

Well I wouldn't say that. Aventura tends to have more trendy stuff and can't handle very many luxury stores with Bal Harbour less than 5 miles away. They still have a Sears and JCPenney, too. I never noticed that there were little to no Chick-fil-A restaurants in Mills Malls, but I did notice that Concord Mills, Arundel Mills, and Potomac Mills didn't have one.

[Skyybutter]

aussie luke, on 26 April 2011 - 09:12 AM, said:

That's a valid point and it looks like it's true at every Mills mall.  I've looked through the directory of a handful of other complexes that are of equal "splendor" and they too do not include a Chick-fil-a.

On that note, the idea C-f-a being the indicator of an A-list mall may have a few small cracks as Aventura Mall in Miami (which makes Southpark look like Eastland) also does not have a C-f-a on the interior.  No, I didn't pick a random mall out of the hat, I have been there several times in the past and couldn't recall it having a chickfil-a, so I looked it up.

On a side note, I think it would be funny for Chick-fil-a's in nice areas to change their names to "Chic"-fil-a.  Just a thought.

Back to the topic though.  I went into the new DKNY a couple days ago.  Their prices are dramatically lower right now because they are doing a grand opening sale of 50% off.  But their normal prices seem to parallel standard DKNY prices.  Picked up a t-shirt for the hell of it and the girl waiting on us took the time to wrap the shirt, bag it, and carry it around the counter to us.  While nice, it seemed so out of place after having been in Concord Mills for about an hour at that point.

Im completely off topic here but though Im not a huge mall fan I have to say Aventura Mall is top of the line.

[Temeteron]

Apparently the FYE music store closed. I saw that one coming....

Edited by Temeteron, 25 April 2012 - 04:19 PM.

[AuLukey]

Temeteron, on 25 April 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

Apparently the FYE music store closed. I saw that one coming....

They didn't close, they are relocating to a much smaller space next to what is now Journey's (old No Fear spot, which moved to another neighborhood.)  Forever 21 is moving into the FYE spot and is encompassing even more adjacent spots on both sides of the mall. It's insane how large this Forever 21 will be.   Also, the crepe restaurant/cafe next to Cinnabon closed, no shocker there.

It's funny you should bring this up as I just got home from the mall a couple hours ago and was noticing all the changes to that end.

[Temeteron]

That saddens me about the crepe place.  People in Concord don't understand Crepes like Charlotteans do!  Still think we need more places like that though.  I'm assuming this Forever 21 will have a Men's section also?

[Third Strike]

Chalk this up with a grain of salt, but I'm hearing from another forum that White Castle is coming to Concord Mills, and they've opened the Charlotte market for franchising.

Truth be told, with the large amount of transplants in the Charlotte area (me included), I can see White Castle doing well here.

[tozmervo]

Whenever I go home to Tennessee, I try to get a sack of gut bombs.

That's Krystal, for you yanks. Far superior to White Castle

[nonillogical]

tozmervo, on 24 May 2012 - 09:31 AM, said:

Whenever I go home to Tennessee, I try to get a sack of gut bombs.

That's Krystal, for you yanks. Far superior to White Castle

There were quite a few Krystals when I lived in Savannah, but I thought they were TRYING to scare me away from it in their commercials and signs. If they can't make their meat not look grey in a commercial I'm going to pass. I've never been to a White Castle either, they start appearing only north of DC generally right?

[ricky_davis_fan_21]

nonillogical, on 24 May 2012 - 10:09 AM, said:

There were quite a few Krystals when I lived in Savannah, but I thought they were TRYING to scare me away from it in their commercials and signs. If they can't make their meat not look grey in a commercial I'm going to pass. I've never been to a White Castle either, they start appearing only north of DC generally right?

When did you live in Savannah, I have fond memories of going to Krystals out on Abercorn at 3-4am after a night on Congress Street.

[nonillogical]

ricky_davis_fan_21, on 24 May 2012 - 01:24 PM, said:

When did you live in Savannah, I have fond memories of going to Krystals out on Abercorn at 3-4am after a night on Congress Street.

I know the one you mean, but nobody ever made me try it, haha (I'm more happy to have Cookout again being back in NC). I transferred to SCAD, lived on Whitemarsh Island from 2004-2007 before coming here. It's sad how little I took advantage of the nightlife, Congress etc, but now when I visit I definitely make up for it.

Edited by nonillogical, 24 May 2012 - 01:39 PM.

[ScottCLT]

Krystal used to be in Charlotte too. I remember hitting up the one in Southend at 3:00a.m. many nights after going out. That was around 2000-2002ish. There was also one near the airport on Billy Graham. Not sure when they pulled out of the market here.