Lakeview Square Mall — Attraction in Battle Creek

This mall is starting to deteriorate, it's heart breaking to see a staple of my childhood losing life. I think this mall would really benefit from a change of pace, it already has the skate/bike park, the battle grounds, and the movie theatre as well as B&N and horrocks, and on the food side they have apple bees and Buffalo wild wings. I could wholeheartedly see the mall taking a turn and opening up as an activity center. Put in or merge with a bowling alley put up a few escape rooms, roller skating, some little stalls of food that are on the cheaper side, make the focused demographic the teens and kids of battle creek, especially during the summer and holidays. There's very little to do in battle creek, and a lot of kids get bored and get in trouble, plus having an expanded arcade and other amenities of that sort would attract adults who like those sorts of activities too. I hope the owner sees this and gives it an honest thought. Imagine the money generation from birthday parties for kids, being able to go to a bounce house and roller skate and watch a movie and spend money in the arcade? Maybe even the chance to see a live performance, doesn't have to be a big named band as long as they can play what the people want! Kids would flip, and for marketing the best place to put a commercial or other forms of campaigns is online. Go to Facebook, post on YouTube, do the tiktok thing, I wouldn't recommend Twitter though. I know the mall has dabbled with things like the Lazer tag and an escape room or two, but I don't think they gave it a real chance, leaning into an activity center would work for what's already there, horrocks & B&N would be able to stay too. Barnes and Noble would be perfect for the less activity driven kids, though personally I would cut off internal access to horrocks due to the copious amounts of alcohol if they did go this way, the drunks who patron it won't mind walking through the garden center, half of them drink out there anyway. Personally, I feel like the amount of people who come to the mall to get drunk is a little low class for the property, though it worked for horrocks when they were struggling and is probably the only reason the malls even floating so I'd understand why they wouldn't change that. Like I said, it's sad to see what was once a heartbeat of our city on a flatline, holding on only by the...

Everything is closing down. There are A LOT of empty spaces where stores used to be. Most of them moved to the plaza on the other side of the Penetrator. Two of the major stores in the mall shut down in 2017 (Macy's and JC Penney), and Sears isn't looking too good, but then again, Sears never does... They randomly closed half of their jewelry stores in the beginning of 2018. Their FYE location is closing this summer. Who knows what's next 🙄

It seems like the mall is trying to fill a lot of empty space with arcade games and games that showcase prizes. They've also opened an indoor skate park next to Dunham's to attract kids into the mall. Oh, and then they had that embarrassing carnival in front of Barnes & Noble WHEN IT WAS SNOWING. You're trying, but trying in the wrong ways...

The two good things about the mall are the NCG Theater and Barnes & Noble. Both seem to be doing the best out of anything else in the mall.

Overall, the mall is just pathetic now, and you can't blame it on online purchases, entirely. Malls in other cities are doing fine, including Jackson: a city half its size. It's just Battle Creek. The mall owners are greedy and have done a horrible job at allowing reasonable rent prices, managing stores, and maintaining safety. People don't want to shop there because there is no variety. Honestly, you have some popular stores, but they just don't offer as much as other cities' stores do.

Fun fact: THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THE PARKING LOTS OR ANYWHERE, REALLY. An elderly woman got stabbed in the Barnes & Noble parking lot in February, and mall employees were told to stay quiet and act as if it didn't happen. When asked about installing proper security, Lakeview Square management refused to respond to me and a few other people who were concerned. Cars were also broken into last year, and I can't help but think that security cameras would've helped tremendously in catching both criminals --- but no. Lakeview Square DID NOTHING. They would rather charge the stores an insane amount of rent money, just so they can use all of it for landscaping and their own paychecks instead of other, more...

I understand that places like Amazon and the new Walmart plus delivery have affected box stores. It's affected our malls, any kind of in-person shopping. And the Lakeview square Mall is no exception. There's literally just a couple places left inside. It feels odd to me now, at 44 years old, to walk through that ghost town! I spent countless hours there during my youth and teenage years up through early adulthood until Amazon took over. Now there's just a couple stores inside, the rest is desolate. The last time I was in there was to go specifically to a mattress store. However, that was the weirdest experience ever. We were looking to buy a mattress and possibly a sofa. But, the only one employee working there wouldn't put his phone down to even acknowledge our existence let alone answer any questions. He clearly wasn't looking to sell anything. We were the only customers. We were literally creeped out and left. The GNC across from the movie theatre is great. The guy that works there is super helpful. There's a shoe store, a rather large one that's still open a customer service is garbage. And then there's Barnes & Noble and the new Horrocks. One end of the mall is supported by a movie theater in GNC and the other end is kept alive with just Barnes & Noble and horrocks. Chinese wellness is still in the mall, I hope they stay but who knows? It is a little creepy to go in a place that's so deserted and with being in a vulnerable position getting a massage with no one else around. I hope the mall can bounce back but I don't see that happening anytime in the future. It's sad but I guess it's part of this new way of life we live in now. All...