As we pulled in to the massive parking area, there was not another car in sight. We took the escalator into the entrance of the Belk store, which was almost completely devoid of customers and employees. Walking through Belk and into the mall proper, we found a vast assortment of boarded-up and chained-up store spaces. I was scared to walk past the Barnes and Noble store, which was also very sparse with customers. I stopped in the bathroom on my way out and it seemed like the kind of place that someone might get mugged. It was a very strange, very depressing shopping experience.
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