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The Return
Author: TriSec    Date: 12/26/2020 11:24:04

Good Morning.

I used to dread this day in retail - even more so than Christmas Eve, or what we used to call "cutoff day" - the last day you could have things shipped in time.


But of course this year was different.

All of my current transit routes take me through the largest mall in New England - the Natick Mall. Two of them also go through neighboring Shoppers World. Of course this is greater Boston, so there is history involved here.


One of the earliest suburban shopping malls in the United States, Shoppers' World (spelled with an apostrophe and possessive "s" in the plural form) opened on October 4, 1951 with 44 stores, 25,000 people, and State Treasurer John E. Hurley present. This futuristic concept mall was designed to be the mecca of suburban shopping between Boston and Worcester, as the area around its original property remains today.

At the time the term "mall" was not yet in use as a term for an enclosed shopping center, but articles about the center spoke of its "mall", in the original sense of "promenade" or "walkway", along which the stores were arranged.

The large Jordan Marsh dome on the southern end was the sole anchor store for the mall in the earliest days. The dome was visible from the air and was used on aeronautical charts as a visual reporting point for aircraft approaching Boston's Logan Airport. It was reputed to be the third largest (in diameter) unsupported dome in the world after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's Cathedral in London.


In any case - it's all part of a much larger shopping area called the "Golden Triangle". I'm afraid it wasn't quite so "Golden" this year.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas - I was warned by more veteran drivers about how bad the traffic is in the area. But it actually never manifested. Not even last Saturday, which is normally the busiest weekend in the area. (And I used to work here in my retail days. My old REI store is on the edge of the aforementioned Triangle.)

It has been easy driving all along - the only truly busy day was actually Christmas Eve, but not at the retail sites. We also service a number of supermarkets, and this is where all the crowds were last weekend.

I can echo some of that personally - I actually only went to one store once in the runup to Christmas. I was in and out in about a half hour, all done. But I went to the market no less than 3 times in the runup to Christmas. Non-perishables first, then the more expensive items, then finally all my perishables for the day.

We'll see what today brings - but I'm not actually expecting much trouble.

So, how was your holiday?


 
 

1 comments (Latest Comment: 12/26/2020 15:16:23 by BobR)
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