Hillsboro is a large town/small city of some 8,000+ people that most Texans have probably driven through at some point. They’re a county seat, sit smack dab in the great plains agricultural belt and have some light manufacturing, but their main economic advantage is being right where I-35E and I-35W join/split to I-35 traveling south to Waco, Austin and San Antonio. Hillsboro is perfectly positioned to be a road trip snack and restroom break stop.
For years one of Hillsboro’s most notable features was its outlet mall, with a variety of national brands. I bought a Fossil watch from their store many, many years ago.
Well, I traveled through there to and from the Metroplex for a funeral, the outlet mall is dead. Though the two open air mall segments have space for some 86 stores, there’s now precisely one open, a Bath and Body Works. The Hillsboro outlet mall was already ailing before the Flu Manchu lockdowns, but that seems top have accelerated the decline. (San Marcos outlet malls, also on the I-35 corridor, seem to done a much better job weathering the economic headwinds.) This would suggest Hillsboro has entered a period of economic stagnation and decline.
Not so fast! Buc-ess, the Texas mega convenience store chain, is opening a store in Hillsboro. Also, Buc-ess pays pretty good wages for a convenience store: “$18.00 * Medical * Dental * Vision * 3 Weeks Paid Time Off * 401k 100% Match up to 6%.”
This is the point where I’m supposed to insert some pithy “when one door closes another opens” aphorism. But I rather strongly suspect this particular mall closing scenario plays out very differently in a blue locale like New York or California, where everyone with the means to do so is moving away from those failing high-tax, high-crime states as fast as they can.
There’s no one coming to save those towns.
Tags: Adandoned Malls, Buc-ees, Economics, Hillsboro, I-35, Texas
“There’s no one coming to save those towns.”
No one is coming to save those towns because the people in those towns voted not to save them, they just didn’t know that’s what they were doing when they cast their ballot year after year for soundbites over substance.
We live in an age with ever more attention deficit distraction that robs people of the cause and effect of actions they took not years, but even months ago. They’re mystified suddenly and wander about wondering what happened. Well…you happened when you were picketing to become a sanctuary city, voted for higher taxes, and thought everyone who opposed those things was a nazi.
The level of buffoonery with regards to Seattle and Portland is present on so many levels. We’ve got a ton of refugees from that mess up here, and it’s very strange to talk to them. The surface-layer conservative types are aghast at what happened, and that they “…couldn’t do anything about it…”, blaming the leftoid freaks. But, you see, there’s this minor problem: They could done something about it. They just couldn’t be arsed, ‘cos Dino Rossi or some other figure wasn’t pure enough for them…
Most of these people are in denial and are also total idiots. They watched what was happening, and then failed to do anything about it. One woman I’ve talked to was on the King County elections oversight board, and while she freely acknowledges that the place is a gigantic Democratic Party vote machine, she couldn’t tell me a damn thing she’d done about it, other than “observe”.
The leftwards-leaners that have left and washed-up here? They’re mostly just delusional idiots who Truly Believed ™ in all the bullshit they were fed. Today, not so much; I’m actually kind of hoping they’re going to take the Red Pill, and remember how they got into power while they were blue. They might actually fight this stuff effectively, now that they can see where the policies and programs have taken their communities that they fled…
The vast majority of all these people, left and right, are just what I’d term “obliviots”. They didn’t pay attention to anything, whether it was history in school, or what was going on all around them. They let it happen in a fit of absent-mindedness, while the “woke activist” types sold everyone down the river when they took over.
Tough luck for whoever bought Willie Nelson’s gas station a while back. I’m not terribly surprised about the outlets; they were always overpriced, whereas the San Marcos ones were… well, generally overpriced, but sometimes had the occasional deal–and arguably a better location, which is even more important.
Willie’s Place wasn’t in Hillsboro, but north of there in Carl’s Corner. It’s now a Petro Travel Center truckstop. Since Buc-ees excludes 18-wheelers from its pumps and parking lots, Petro might be OK.
Second try. I drive I-57 frequently from Chicago to downstate Illinois. There is a large outlet mall in Tuscola, 30 miles south of Champaign, that has a similar situation. It has several large buildings; one of these has been leased to the county for their offices and a health care clinic. That at least brings traffic. The rest of the mall is down to a half-dozen stores, including a Polo outlet. There is a Holiday Inn Express there; I suspect that was built to take advantage of the mall traffic but surprise! They never look busy.
The rest of the area has the usual large truck stop stations, a couple of gas stations and fast food joints, and the like. I suppose they’ll hang in there for a while, but the mall sure isn’t coming back.
What actually killed all the malls? All the outlet centers?
I know that online has supplanted a lot of the retail world, but has it really been the reason? I mean, half the reason we used to go to malls, when I was young, was the social experience. You went down there to pick up girls, see the sights (girls…), and do a little shopping. Or, such was my experience.
Why do I no longer go to malls? Nine-tenths of the reason is that there’s nothing there I want to see, any more… And, the security situation, which I think played into that “nothing to see any more”, in that you no longer have pretty young ladies, or even pretty ladies of any age going out after dark to these places. Hell, some of them? I won’t go without carrying a gun…
So… I suspect that if we were to really tease out what happened to a lot of these places, it’d likely come down to “Destruction of the social space’s safety” and “Online retail”, in varying proportions dependent upon location.
A lot of these venues did it to themselves. The ones around Seattle started catering to the “urban enrichment” types, refusing to prosecute anyone for anything criminal they did on their premises, and the whole thing started going downhill from there. Acquaintance of mine used to manage one of the larger such entities in the Seattle region, and she described what happened when the dumbasses from the national headquarters started making all these changes to policies about criminal prosecutions and cooperating with the police. This started back during the 1990s, and steadily got worse the entire time she worked for them. By the time she got out of the business, the higher-ups were telling the local managers not to provide surveillance imagery to the cops, in fear of being sued by the criminals.
So, in that regard? Self-inflicted wounds. You make it so people don’t want to go to your venue, guess what happens? You don’t have any traffic or any business at all, after enough of them get burnt. I mean, the last time anyone I know of drove the hundred-plus miles to the Puget Sound metro area to go shopping, they had their car broken into not once, but twice. Will they ever go back? Not until hell freezes over. And, poof, there goes a considerable sum of retail traffic… Which is going to be what eventually kills Seattle. Right now, we can’t get clients to go over there and visit any of the showrooms for fixtures and finishes, at all: Too much risk to even go into the industrial area to visit the various places that used to be major suppliers. They’re all feeling the heat, and doing what they can to move out of the metro area, heading for the hinterlands. Which is an enormous pain in the ass, because what used to be a day trip to go visit all the different suppliers is now a multi-day expedition to cover all the ground they now extend across. Huge pain in the ass…
Again, Seattle being Detroit II in another decade? Highly probable; maybe even sooner. Their tax base is hollowing out as we speak…
Carl’s Corner is under 5 minutes away from that intersection–close enough to potentially wipe it out. I didn’t realize that Buc-ees *didn’t* allow trucks, though; I had thought they started out as a truck stop. I’ve never been in one–guess I’ll have to check it out someday.
Steve: Traditional malls (at least the smaller ones) aren’t doing very well, either. I know of several that are down to just 1-2 stores and *maybe* the theater. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve gone from being a cultural icon to completely forgotten. I’d like to see somebody research the history, and see if the collapse began with online shopping, or with the introduction of the smartphone and social media.
Malls flourish elsewhere. The 12 million sq ft Dubai Mall boasts 1,200 retail stores, two anchor department stores and more than 200 food and beverage outlets.
If your reason for going to the mall is to shoot dope or rival gang members, you will undoubtedly find yourself to be an unwelcome guest there. The well-heeled and well-mannered will find access to indoor ski slopes, a ginormous aquarium, a go-kart track and sundry entertainment experiences in addition to the aforementioned attractions.
The mall didn’t die
It emigrated to Dubai
We should ask ourselves why
It went to the other guy
I had Amazon deliveries on both Saturday & Sunday. I tracked both when they came within range. On Saturday, I observed the truck make 3 deliveries before me while I was on my front porch. On Sunday, it was 9 stops, but a little wider range. That is a LOT of traffic. I think that might help explain Hillsboro.
Some Bucee’s allow 18 wheelers, some don’t. The one on I-10 in Luling certainly does, as does the one in Baytown, and the one north of Waller. Most rig drivers look for a place to fuel and wait out their log book. Bucee’s doesn’t want drivers to park and take up spots. Best go on down to Love’s for that.
The last time I was at the one in Waller, I was entertained by them having installed a row of Tesla chargers out along the highway access road. Only about a 1/4 mile walk to the building. Thru traffic at the pumps. And you’re gonna eat a lot of overpriced colaches while you wait.