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I thought the guy selling $1 mall pretzels at Rolling Acres was running a front, then I watched him for 3 hours
Went to Rolling Acres Mall in Akron on a Tuesday in March because the internet swore the place was sealed up, but the food court still had one pretzel stand open and a guy named Dale behind the counter. I sat on a bench expecting a drug thing, and instead counted 41 customers in 3 hours, mostly regulars who work at the tire shop and the DMV across the street, and he told me he clears about $300 a day with no rent since the owner lets him stay for insurance reasons. Is there a name for these last-standing spots inside dead malls, or does everyone just call them survivor stores?
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shanew596d ago
The $300 a day figure is the part that got me, because I did almost the same thing at a dead mall near Toledo back in 2019 and my big detective moment was buying a corn dog and sitting there for 20 minutes before I got bored and left. Dale is out here running a real business while I am playing Scooby Doo with a food court. 41 customers in 3 hours at a buck each is only $41 though, so its the volume on the bigger stuff that must carry him, or he sells a lot more than the dollar dogs. I have heard people call them zombie stores or holdout shops, but survivor store works fine too. Did he say what he does when the AC finally quits or the power gets shut off?
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