I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet and it could have been just THE thing to do on a chilly, gloomy Saturday, but based on my visit to Mayfair yesterday, the economy is going to recover just fine, thank you.

 

My daughter and I headed over to visit Tosa’s largest taxpayer in search of a black dress. We had all day and figured we’d have the place largely to ourselves. Um, no. The mall was packed. Honestly, you’d think it was mid-December a decade ago.

 

And it wasn’t just mall walkers and people trolling the halls. People had bags, lots of them. The longest lines were at the cash registers. Don’t these people realize they have no money? This is predicted to be the bleakest holiday shopping season in years. Didn’t they get the memo?! Haven’t they watched the news?!

 

Here’s my take on the situation: Milwaukeeans (and Tosans) are notorious bargain hunters. If there’s a hint of savings, they’ll be all over it in no time. I think our neighbors know a good deal when they smell one. They know that right now, everything is on sale and they’re not going to miss out on that.

 

So now my wish is that our local (and maybe even national) news organizations take note and start doing stories about surprisingly brisk holiday sales. Imagine that, good news in the middle of our national financial crisis! Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

What’s the secret to a successful mall? It’s simple – change or die.

 

When I first moved to Milwaukee, my husband and I lived just off of Brown Deer Road near Northridge Mall. Back then, 25 years ago, Northridge was THE mall. Everything in and around Northridge was thriving. We’d spend hours wandering the aisles of Northridge, window-shopping and just hanging out.

 

Because my first job was near Wauwatosa, we bought our first house in Milwaukee on the edge of Tosa. It was a tiny little starter home and on sunny days we’d take walks and gaze across Center Street and dream of the day we’d be able to afford a Tosa home. Eventually, our dream came true and we became true Tosans. And our new mall became Mayfair.

 

Back in the early ‘80s, Mayfair seemed like the quirkiest mall to me. There was an ice rink in the middle of it! How cool/weird is that?! It didn’t take long before I grew attached to Mayfair. We’d go to movies in the odd little theater in the East parking lot. We’d grab lunch at the cute little café in Marshall Field & Company.

 

I vividly remember a day in early 1986, standing and watching ice skaters while upstairs in the office building, my doctor was processing my first pregnancy test. That same year, they started making huge changes at Mayfair. They took out the ice rink and started building a second floor. I remember wandering the halls of Mayfair, in an around scaffolding, while I made my way to the Chocolate Factory for lunch. (Prior to the arrival of the food court.)

 

For many, many years, it seemed like Mayfair was on a steady diet of change. New retailers came and went. Our children have fond memories of the opening of The Disney Store on the first floor of Mayfair. They’d spend HOURS gazing at and sometimes climbing around the tower of stuffed animals in the back of the store. (That is when they weren’t begging for a new toy.) When we could lure the kids out of The Disney Store, my husband and I would drag them over to Scribner’s, where we’d buy books that came with ever-useful blue bookmarks.

 

To us, it almost seemed like Mayfair grew as our kids grew. When they were at just the right age to become regular movie-goers, the 18-screen theater opened. We were there on that opening weekend when they offered free movies (albeit older films) to show off the new screens. Back then, there was a dinner theater in the General Cinema Theater (now AMC) as well as birthday parties for kids.

 

Once the theater opened up, the mall began to group stores in the upper level based on demographics. On one end, they put Build-A-Bear and Gap Kids, on the other end, Spencer Gifts and American Eagle.

 

Soon there was a huge growth spurt that included Crate & Barrel, PF Changs, Maggiano’s and Cheesecake Factory. For several years, we came to expect something new every season.

 

Mayfair became THE mall in the Milwaukee area, while malls like Northridge, Southridge and Bayshore either folded or barely survived. Unfortunately, with success come challenges and Mayfair had its share of incidents and crime issues. But again, the mall responded in 2007 by instituting the Parental Guidance policy which seems to have been very successful.

 

With the exception of McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant and a few random retailers, Mayfair has been pretty quiet in the past year or so. Meanwhile, Bayshore and Brookfield Square have spent major dollars to attract shoppers to other sides of town.

 

Only time will tell if Mayfair and other malls will withstand the shaky economic times that have pinched everyone’s wallets. For 50 years, Mayfair has evolved and flourished. Now it’s up to us to decide if Wauwatosa’s largest taxpayer will be around for another 50 years. As Wauwatosa residents, we have a vested interest in Mayfair Mall.

 

So what do you think? Do you have any “Mayfair Memories” that you’d like to share? Do you like Mayfair or avoid it like the plague? What changes, if any, would you like to see at Mayfair?

Friday, a friend and I spent the day shopping…at Brookfield Square. Yes, we cheated on Mayfair.

 

Anyway, I noticed a couple of things while conducting retail therapy. First of all, despite all of the renovations and new stores and restaurants, Brookfield Square still doesn’t compare to Mayfair. This is just my opinion, but I was less than impressed by the offerings at Brookfield Square. Lots of repeats and somewhat mediocre quality that add up to just a “wanna-be” mall. Any stores that Mayfair and Brookfield Square share are infinitely better at Mayfair. It seems like they’re targeting the bargain hunter, but for my money, Southridge would be a better value.

 

However, Brookfield Square beats Mayfair AND Southridge in one area – they plow better. If you’ve been to Mayfair recently, you’ll see that their method of snow removal is to compact the snow between the rows of parking spaces, creating narrow passageways that are nearly impossible to navigate. Frankly, it’s several accidents waiting to happen.

 

Brookfield Square completely removes the snow in the parking areas. I have no idea if they deposited it in a corner of a lot, but it was gone and much easier to park.

 

Now, I’m guessing that Mayfair Management will tell me that Mayfair is so popular that they need to make every single parking space available and can’t afford to dump the snow in a corner of the parking lot. Probably true.

 

Look, I have no idea what they should do with all of that snow. All I know is that parking was treacherous the other morning at Mayfair at 9:00 am, 10 days before Christmas. I can’t imagine how bad it will be these next two weekends.

 

Parkers, beware.

Imagine this: You’re knee-deep in shopping lists and you’re wracking your brain trying to figure out what to get your picky teenage daughter when suddenly, inspiration hits. You know exactly what to get her. Let’s say it’s a pair of stretch jeans The problem is where to find them.

 

So, you plan a trip to Mayfair and mentally make a list of all the stores that might carry stretch jeans. But you have a budget and it’s important that you get them in the perfect size. Next thing you do is get in your car, drive to the mall and prepare to spend hours wandering and shopping, right?

 

What if you didn’t have to do that? What if you could search for those jeans online and find out which stores in Mayfair actually carry them? What if you could find out who has them on sale and whether they have the size and color you need? You’re thinking I’ve had too much eggnog, right? Wrong!

 

Shoppers rejoice! Now, thanks to NearbyNow, you can do all of this and more. www.nearbynow.com is being touted as the Google of shopping for Mayfair Mall. (It also works for Brookfield Square and a few other malls around the state…and the country.)

 

Simply go to the website, choose the state and mall you want and then type in the item that you’re looking for. It’s that easy. It will even give you a picture of the item, tell you how to get to the mall AND show you where in the mall the store is located. (Especially helpful for those of us with middle-age brain who can’t even find our car keys.)

 

What if your inspiration hits while you’re already at Mayfair? No problem! Just pull out your cell phone, send a code (Mayfair's code is MF) via text message to NearbyNow, and NearbyNow will send you a mobile menu with results.

 

I don’t know about you, but in the midst of the holiday season, I’m usually short on time. I end up grouping my shopping trips to save time and get more done. Seems to me that NearbyNow has made it even easier so that I can get in and out of the mall in no time at all.

 

Now, if I could only get it to do all my other holiday chores….

 

OK, now I’m mad. Today I read in the newspaper that Running Rebels Community Organization, Urban Underground and Campaign Against Violence were out at Mayfair on Saturday protesting the new PGR (Parental Guidance Required) policy. They were apparently standing on Mayfair Road and Center Street with protest signs, chanting things like: "Out of sight, out of mind. Being young is not a crime."

That’s not what made me mad. I believe in the right to peacefully protest whatever you want. And based on the discussions that I’ve had with my 15-year old the last two days, she’d be right there with them chanting the loudest. She is definitely NOT a fan of the PGR policy and has repeatedly reminded me how incredibly “unfair” it is.

What made me really angry was the statement made by Bobby Drake, the spokesperson for Campaign Against Violence, one of the protesting groups. Here’s what he said: "If you kick 1,000 to 1,500 kids out of the mall and put them back in the inner city in the middle of the summer, you're putting all these young men and women who weren't getting into trouble back into the street," Drake said. "We fear that it's going to drive up a problem."

OK, so the mall should take the “problem” (Drake’s words, not mine) and let it roam freely?

Somebody tell me when it became Mayfair Mall’s job to take care of these kids and give them a place to hang out. Mayfair is a private property, right? Don’t they have the constitutional right to set their own policies as long as they don’t discriminate? My understanding is that the new policy targets underage kids. Drew’s Variety Store has a policy stating that no more than two students at a time can be in their store after school. Why aren’t Urban Underground, Running Rebels and Campaign Against Violence standing outside Drew’s and carrying picket signs?

I don’t deny groups and under-18ers the right to dislike the PGR policy. As I said, I have my own little protest going on in my house. But the point here is that the Mall is a private business whose business is to sell merchandise. The young kids (including my own) do not have the right to roam freely without their parents after 2pm on Fridays and Saturdays. That’s two days out of seven. The rest of the week is wide open. On Sunday through Thursday, kids can “hang out” to their heart’s content. Or, they can let their closed wallets do the talking and decide to take their business elsewhere.

I agree that Milwaukee has a growing problem with violence in the city and my hope is that these groups make some headway in addressing these issues. But if their intention is to turn Mayfair into a Boys and Girls Club, an afterschool program or a solution to those problems, I think they've gone to the wrong place.

If you’ve driven through the north end of the Mayfair Mall parking lot and passed by Marshall Field’s, you can see that big changes are coming. Although it still says Marshall Field’s on the outside of the building, that sign is now a temporary one draped over what will, no doubt, be the Macy’s logo. For this former Chicagoan, seeing the Field’s logo flapping in the wind is a sad sight.

As you probably read in the Journal Sentinel on Sunday, this is the last month of Marshall Field’s existence in Wisconsin...or anywhere else, for that matter. Although Field’s was purchased last year and has been run since then by Macy’s, the name has hung around...until now. In September, we will officially have a Macy’s here in Wauwatosa. I guess I should be excited, but I’m just really melancholy.

Having grown up in Chicago and the northern suburbs, Marshall Field’s was such a big part of my childhood. I’m one of those girls that remembers riding with my mom to downtown Chicago on the train to eat a Christmastime lunch in the State Street Field’s Walnut Room. Frango is as much of a part of my vocabulary as cheese is here in Wisconsin. (Did you know that they used to have Frango Ice Cream Pies and they were amazing?!) I know that it’s not going to change my day to day existence, but I just wish that Fields could always be around.

Back in November, I was in New York City. Knowing that Field’s had recently been purchased by Macy’s, we decided to visit the Herald Square Macy’s and go shopping. They offered us a special discount if we opened a Macy’s charge that day. Since I figured I could make use of the new credit card, I decided that it was worthwhile. However, when my Macy’s card arrived in the mail, I was irritated to find that it was a Macy’s Visa Card! Maybe I’m crazy, but I like to think that Field’s wouldn’t have pulled such a bait and switch on me.

As of right now, Frango Mints are available through Macy’s. Let’s hope that they don’t mess around with those too!