Reply #9: During Bush's reign

[TlalocW]

The relatively nice (but small) mall close to me had just about every major store in it go out of business. JC Penney's space was bought and converted into an office for Coca-Cola (loading bay underneath stores their products). During Clinton's day, there was a Dillards there that would sell after hour tickets to various businesses who wanted to treat their workers to something special during Christmas. We were given a coupon worth $20 off anything in the store, there were roaming carolers, platters of hor d'oeuvres, a string quartet playing Christmas music, and of course pictures with Santa. Pretty fancy for a guy like me. Bush's economy hit, and they stopped that (and a lot of us were laid off anyway, and the branch of the company I worked for held on valiantly but still went under). They sold other Dillards' returns for a while, but it was just a jumbled mess, and they gave up. Alorica - some sort of inbound tech support center - took them over. Mervyn's went under, and Phoenix University put up a small branch there. I think the only "merchant" there anymore in a bowling alley.

TlalocW