The Shoppes at Carlsbad — Attraction in Carlsbad

I'm very disappointed in the security at this mall the other night I was sitting in my car getting ready to go inside the gym when one of the security guards Buzz my car and almost hit it with his security cart. This morning after getting out of the gym cuz I have a membership here 24hr fitness. I stopped to eat my lunch in front of the Sears by the train station a lady security guard came up to me in a vehicle and park right behind me so I got out of my car and took a picture of her in her vehicle. she pulled up and asked me why I took her picture I told her you guys have been harassing me and the other day one of your colleagues almost hit my car with golf cart going real fast I asked her what their problem was? She replied there's no loitering in this lot I laughed I told her I just came out of the gym and wanted to eat my lunch and informed her I would be talking to the mall management about the behavior of the security staff. 12 years I bodyguard and I was a security guard and a security consultant for Flower Hill Mall and beachwalk Mall in Solana Beach. I thought to myself I'd never seen such unprofessionalism from security guards in my whole life. As an ex bodyguard I observe everything I see people who are working on the mall drinking beer and hard liquor and they're worried about me eating my lunch or stopping to read in my car before I go in the gym and workout! Hey Mall you better address your security problem or somebody might take litigation against you. If you need somebody to educate you on the powers of arrest and security officers rights and what they can do and what they cannot do give me a call I would be more than glad to educate you being that I have 12 years experience of doing this. To all the people who visit this mall Beware Of The Reckless security Behavior take notes and take pictures and documentation. Here...

How did they manage to construct a brand new shopping mall and it still is outdated, slow, and lackluster?

Most stores are going out of business. Or stores that seem to never die, ie: Macy’s, JCPenney, Victoria secret. Mixed in you have the decent shops like Zara, Sephora, Dave and Busters, and the movie theater. Not to mention they added some up and coming restaurants to make the mall more lively.

You have a tiny (usually always packed) indoor play area for small children next to the ONLY elevator of the entire mall. Why are there no handicap accessible/stroller accessible/ elevators available on each side of the mall? Only one, and next to the most populated area of the mall? No one wants to ride an elevator with 10 people inside when I have the stroller with me.

Yes, there’s more …

Why is there no nursing room or family restrooms? Where is the ‘modern touch’ on this mall? Not to mention, the only restroom that is available is on the second ground floor, with ONE handicap restroom stall. 9/10 times I’ve needed to change my baby’s diaper while I was here- I COULDN’T - because you have homeless or loser people hanging out in the larger stall- preventing me being able to change a diaper in private. To make it worse, this past time someone had a small marf dog in that stall with them and hogged the bathroom for 10+ minutes until I finally gave up and decided to leave. Only then for me to come back to give the bathrooms one last chance, and I come back to see an elderly woman half naked by the sinks with POOP all over her legs and the floor….. I continued walking and saw her stall was completely covered in feces… you can imagine smell…. Oh and yes the handicap stall was still occupied. Good grief.

This mall is a perfect representation of why no one goes to indoor malls. Especially this one. Poorly managed and...

I remember when "Plaza Camino Real" (PCR) was in the concept stage. Originally, it was planned to be built North of Hwy 78. (Where Gemco/Target is currently.) The O'side/C'bad City business owners decided to create a large scale "mall" to centrally locate most all the businesses in Carlsbad and Oceanside. Only, this had NEVER been attempted before, anywhere. They didn't know if this grand experiment was going to be a success, or fall flat on it's face. Yes, this is the very first mall of it's size to be attempted. Now, you may ask," Why is it in Carlsbad, and not Oceanside?" Well, it had to boil down to parking space fees. Since this was an experiment, they didn't know if it would work, or not. Because of this, the City of Oceanside demanded $9 per parking space, per year. (Multiplied by thousands of spaces, this became some real money.) Well, Carlsbad heard about the shenanigans the Oceanside City tried to pull, and made "PCR" an offer of $3 per space, for the first 10 years. Needless to say, they jumped at the opportunity that Carlsbad had offered. Back in 1970, when this mall opened, it drew shoppers from ACROSS THE COUNTRY to shop there. It was a very popular place to see, and BE SEEN. Needless to say, it became a huge success (until Amazon killed retail brick & mortar establishments.) Anyhow, since other businesses saw the success of PCR, the auto dealerships did the same thing. That's how "Car Country" was born...

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