Palmer Park Mall Needs Overhaul, Patch Readers Say

The closure of a book store and an auto dealership showroom in the past month has Palmer-Forks Patch.com readers focused on the future of the Palmer Park Mall.

And many of them say that the mall needs a makeover.

"It needs an overhaul," said Carole Gallo Cecio said on the Palmer-Forks Facebook page. "It needs to get with the times. To save it and get people there, you need to update."

Sue Griffiths Gardner, commenting on this site after Books for Sale recently closed shop, agreed.

"The Palmer Mall is stuck in the 80s," Griffiths Gardner said. "They need to do a needs survey, recruit brand name retailers, redecorate, advertise, or they are gone. People want action, and this mall is dead.

Gardner added that losing the bookstore wasn't a disaster since the market for books is shrinking daily due to technology.

"Fiat didn't help the mall anyway; who goes to the mall to look at Fiats? That wasted a store," she continued. "People have to be stimulated, and you have to sell what people are buying. Palmer Mall doesn't. Management needs to get out there and recruit stores people actually want."

The mall has gone through a string of retail casualties over the past few years, adding minimally to its anchors of Boscov's and The Bon-Ton.

Rob Leiser believes the mall should adopt his strategy.

"The rent is too high for most except the national chains to afford," Leiser said. "Management should consider filling every store front at discounted rates to bring shoppers in." 

Others reminisced about the mall's glory days.

"Times have changed. I don't remember a week when I wasn't at the Palmer Mall, when I was a teen," Joe Green said. "Heck, my high school yearbook has a section dedicated to Mallrats. Now, well, I can't name just one thing, but .. times have changed."

"I remember its glory days of Hess and clover, when there still were fountains, good stores, and people still hung out in it," said Justin Queitzsch. "It's sad to see the mall slowly withering away. I had a lot of good memories in this mall."