Quintard Mall on the back side of COVID

Pandemic concerns wiped out my Precious Hearts Tour for 2020. However, so many of us are fully vaccinated now, and things are headed in a more amenable societal direction. So I started recovering some pieces of it today. And between breakfast with Jennifer and lunch with Mr. and Mrs. T., I stopped by dear old Quintard Mall.

The only entrance I could find in (light) use was the old main entrance on the west side. Almost all of the mall’s original footprint is vacant now.

The full length of the original mall, taken from the JCPenney entrance. (Click for larger.)
Orange Julius, left; Newsom’s Music Center, right. (Once.) (Click for larger.)

You can still go to Hibbett Sports to the north.

There’s an unambiguous desperation about a sign that proudly trumpets “STILL OPEN.” (Click for larger.)

Penney’s soldiers on to the south (and shoot, we don’t even have one of those anymore). I would have liked to walk around it a bit; alas, it was closed until some later and unapparent time of day.

Hello, stranger. (Click for larger.)

You know the nature show you’ve seen a hundred times, in which the wounded or ill member of the herd lags just enough to get picked off by predators? That’s what I kept thinking of walking through Quintard Mall this morning. It was already limping because of dwindling interest in malls in general, and then COVID was the wolf that took it down by the haunch.

Looking east into the newer part is slightly less depressing, but only slightly. (Click for larger.)

You can poke around on the series of tubes and find this reimagining plan or that for Quintard Mall, but I’m not so sure about any of that. All of the retail money is being spent three miles down the road at exit 188. It’s hard to tell a plausible story that includes millions of development dollars flowing into this space.

As I’ve written previously, this was a special place to me in my childhood. Now, it’s flirting with full-on blight, when most of that in the area is up this very road in Anniston. I’m at once pleased I can still visit it and disheartened at its protracted death spiral.

Despite the gloom, the Lord’s chicken is still available. (Click for larger.)

I’m trying to be hopeful for you, Quintard Mall, but I’ve seen this movie a couple of times already.

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