Salt Lake mall is well-stocked with empty
Lee Benson
Admission is free and directions are simple. Just walk 2 1/2 blocks due east of the bustling, thriving Gateway development and enter through the doors with the '80s style "CP" stenciled on the glass.
Just like that you're into Salt Lake's very own mall-turned-mausoleum.
What was once a bustling, thriving shopping mecca with 140 stores and restaurants and people fighting over parking places now has exactly 15 places still in business, and 10 of those are in the basement.
On the main level, there's one bank, one department store, one bookstore and two dress shops, both of which are, as we speak, holding 50 percent going-out-of-business sales.
Beyond that, there's so much empty space it reminds you of Wyoming. Downtown Ophir is busier. They could hold a Formula One race in the Crossroads Plaza and no one would get hurt.
For some reason, though, the doors are still open and the escalators and elevators are still running — like in some Stephen King novel where an epidemic wipes out everything but the fixtures and the easy-listening music that is still piped through the speakers.
Other than that, it was just me and mall memories.
I remembered Christmas shopping seasons back in the day before you could shop online when Crossroads was so crowded it was hard to find a bench to collapse on.
I remembered anxious moments between passing the credit card across the counter and bracing for the clerk to say, "They're saying it's denied."
I remembered Girbaud jeans and Air Jordans.
I remembered free cookie samples at the Mrs. Fields stand in the center of the mall that had to be the primest location for Mrs. Fields in the history of cookie stands.
Now, all that remains of Mrs. Fields is an abandoned Coke fountain.
I couldn't resist. I walked behind the counter and pushed the tap to see if it was still working.
There was no one there to stop me.
It wasn't.
On Level 2, I found three guys eating sandwiches in a room that said "Engineering Department." I asked them the same question they've been asked over and over in the 2 1/2 years since it was announced that the mall would be part of a massive downtown makeover.
"When is something going to happen?"
"All the lawyers have it tied up, so we're still in a holding pattern," said one.
"OK to walk around?" I asked.
"Sure," another one said, "for now."
As I walked, I could only imagine the confusion of someone from out of town who might stumble inside and try to do a little shopping in the biggest mall in Salt Lake City . . . only to discover it's no longer there.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.
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