New mall lives up to local trio's expectations
Jonesboro Sun
LeAnn Askins and Amanda Harris
3/30/2006
JONESBORO -- The Goodwin women know something about shopping. In fact, it's an activity they enjoy doing throughout the country when they travel.
Several months ago, when the official opening date was announced for The MALL AT TURTLE CREEK, Myra Goodwin and Gina Goodwin decided to take the day off from their jobs at Arkansas State University to shop with their mom, Gail.
The Jonesboro women joined hundreds of others Wednesday morning for the long-anticipated first day of shopping at Northeast Arkansas' retail mecca.
These women arrived promptly at 8:30 a.m., later than some shoppers who admitted to standing in line for several hours.
An hour-and-a-half wait was well worth it once they ventured into the corridor that led to their day-long shopping spree.
The sisters and mom said they were most looking forward to browsing J. Jill and Bath and Body Works, but as waves of shoppers flooded in, it was tough to decide where to start.
Right off the bat they spotted stores they were interested in, and the trio ducked into Coldwater Creek. Next, J. Jill, perusing women's clothing.
The women, who admit to being avid Internet and catalog shoppers, said they were impressed with the selections now available locally.
"This [J. Jill] and Coldwater Creek are the best we've seen," Gail said of the merchandise in-stock.
The Goodwins said they often find that stores don't offer the same selection as is available in the catalogs. They were pleasantly surprised to learn this isn't the case at The MALL AT TURTLE CREEK.
"This is really a very good sampling," Myra noted.
The women said they plan to do more shopping locally now that Jonesboro offers the types of stores they prefer.
Shopping locally will help the local economy and save them money on shipping costs, Gail pointed out.
"There will be much more of an incentive to shop here," she added.
Gina, a smart shopper who likes using coupons and receiving special bonus offers, looks forward to taking advantage of store-specific incentives she receives in the mail or via e-mail. In the past she traveled to Memphis to redeem the offers. But it's much easier now with so many of the same retailers in Jonesboro, she said.
The trio said oftentimes when they shop in Memphis, they receive incentives that must be redeemed the next week. Now they'll be able to take advantage of those offers with little hassle.
Five hours into their shopping trip, the Goodwin women couldn't pull themselves away from Dillard's.
There they waited in line at the make-up counters and studied the selection of summer shoes.
Before the grand opening, Dillard's boasted having 40,000 pairs of women's shoes in stock. The women helped lower that number.
The women agreed the 155,000-square-foot store offered much more than what they are accustomed to locally.
"It's a bigger and better selection," Myra noted.
Gail said when she lived in St. Louis before returning to her hometown of Jonesboro in 1988, there was a large Dillard's that offered a furniture section.
She said she was pleased that the Dillard's at The MALL AT TURTLE CREEK has a home section.
The Goodwins said they are ready for the remaining stores to open -- more are slated for the coming weeks -- so they can truly explore all the mall has to offer.
"It's definitely different than what our mall used to be," Myra noted.
Gail said she remembers when Indian Mall opened, she thought it was really nice at the time. It simply didn't grow as she would have liked.
The family was disappointed that The MALL AT TURTLE CREEK did not have an assortment of restaurants to choose from for their lunch.
More food court restaurants are expected to open soon as well.
Overall, the family was pleased with their shopping experience and plan to return for more shopping trips.
"Every place I've been in, I've liked," Myra said near the end of their day of shopping.
"I liked it overall, but there were some stores I thought were coming that there weren't signs up for yet," Gina said.
"Overall, I thought it was great," Gail said. "They did an excellent job."
"We had a fun-filled family day," Gina added.
As the family winded down their day around 5 p.m. with a snack at Target, they reflected on the time they spent and the purchases they made.
Gina said she likes the theme of having turtles throughout the mall and likes the statues in front of the building but would like to see live turtles.
She said she would love for there to be a pond with turtles inside the mall to look at during future shopping trips.
"It would really add to it," she noted.
Was it worth the sisters taking a day off of work to shop?
"Oh yes!" Myra said.
"Yes, it was worth it," Gina added.
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