Okay people, take a step back and look at the big picture. There are some major problems with the "Shops at Waterloo Town Square". The main problem is that there isn't an anchor store. An anchor store is a large store that attracts a wide range of shoppers to a particular shopping area. In most shopping areas it would be similar to The Bay, Sears, etc. The other smaller or niche businesses benefit by being located in close proximity to the anchor store. This is not rocket science. I'm not saying that you necessarily need The Bay or Sears, but an anchor store is definitely needed. Bottom Line: You need to attract shoppers.
The following are some other problems that do not help the situation.
Parking: There is a two hour time limit on the mall parking lot. I'm not talking about street parking. I'm talking about the mall parking lot. People have been getting parking tickets for spending too much time shopping. How ridiculous. How are you supposed to spend time shopping and browsing stores and maybe getting a bite to eat in under two hours? Especially at Christmas. This is a major turn off for shoppers. You can't even go to dinner without the fear of getting a parking ticket. Preposterous.
Restaurants: A restaurant was added to the mall that is only open until 3pm weekdays and 4pm on weekends. How ridiculous. "Hey, lets go do a bit of shopping after work and go to dinner." Oops, the restaurant is closed. How dumb.
Hours: The shops have poor hours. Mon-Wed & Sat (10 am to 6pm), Thu-Fri (10am to 8pm). Try staying open later all week.
The combination of these issues and more create a detrimental effect on the area.
There more turnovers in the mall than an average bakery. It is not appealing to go into a shopping establishment and see that a good portion of the stores are closed, out of business, or about to go out of business.
I know this is a little soap-boxy, but I think Uptown Waterloo has tons of potential. The people running the show need to WAKE UP!!
That is all.
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