Kingston Collection — Attraction in Kingston

This mall has been around for as long as I can remember, and some of my earliest memories I can actually remember are being at this mall as a small child in the food court eating an A&W hot dog or playing Pac-Man at the long gone Cyberstation arcade. I'm not sure how this mall is still around and it's probably because of some powerful black magic, but it's still open after the pandemic, even if that meant that a good percentage of what little stores and restaurants it had in the late 2000s to late 2010s have shuttered. There's a Regal cinema that I remember seeing a ton of movies at during my childhood, a Newbury Comics that was my go-to store for music and Japanese figures during my teenage years, a Target that replaced my mother's old favorite store (Bradlee's), and a really nice little local toy shop called Maziply. There's also a bowling/arcade place and the awful Debbie's Pet Land that used to be full of miserable animals from puppy mills and questionable facilities is now an actual adoption center. The food court has been gutted and the only places are very odd looking small places that were either closed when I went or nobody was eating anything so I took it as a bad sign.

Definitely not as good as it used to be, but that can be said for any mall after not only Amazon and online shopping almost killed it but also the pandemic. I'm honestly impressed it's still open because my friends and I would joke about it being a ghost town and going out of business within the next few years back in high school, so color me impressed I guess. It's kinda like a cockroach, it could survive a nuclear apocalypse.

Speaking of cockroaches, remember the food court McDonalds? It closed a long time ago and I remember hearing rumors that a disgruntled former employee had a box of roaches shipped there after being fired, according to some kid I knew in high school. Always thought...

I love indoor malls, don't get me wrong. But this place is terrible. Probably at least half the stores that were "open" when I went there at around 3 pm were closed. And that's among the stores that are still there, which probably makes up half the leasable spaces there.

Among those places is a theater, which is probably the best the mall has to offer. (If we're excluding Target) There's no appealing places to get food. Nothing that would prompt you to make the trip to the mall. Maybe you would get something to eat at one if you were starving while there but, again, most were closed. There's some dog places, which might be alright if you're a dog person. There's a few kids places, but the trampoline park was closed when I went there at 3 pm for some strange reason. (I mean isn't that like half an hour after kids get out of school?) Idk, there's just not much to visit here.

Worst part was the fact that I took photos of storefronts and stuff, with practically zero people there, not even any noticeable security, for FOUR MINUTES, and as I walk towards the exit, and I'm approached by a security guard who questions me about taking photos. He says not to take pictures of people, but out of all the photos I had, in only one of them I think I just saw the back of a person rather far away. Christ on a...

EDITS ARE IN CAPS, THE MALL NOW GETS ONE STAR.

I was working with a company in 2013 that had a location at this mall, back when it was independence mall. It was a dead mall at the time. Fast-forward 10 years and I'm in the area, so I wanted to check it out. I had heard after the 2013 holiday season, they spent a ton of money on the property. I also needed an early lunch because I had 3 hours of driving ahead of me.

HUGE EDIT. I HAVE LEARNED THAT THEY POST THE MALL HOURS FOR ALL BUSINESS, EVEN WHEN THEY KNOW THEY WILL NOT BE OPEN! Down to 1 star for me. Shame on you for trying to get people into you mall, while posting super fake hours.

The second I walked into the bathroom, I said to myself that looks the same.

Walked through the food court, nothing was open. Yet the mall was open.

Walked the entire mall. I would guess about half the mall has tenants. Less than half of them were open.

Walked back through the food court a little before noon. Still nothing Open. THE MALL DOESN'T POST THE STORES ACTUAL HOURS

I left without a taco and hotdog.

There where people sitting in the food court looking for food!

If you own a business and are concerned about your sales, maybe ask if you are available to customers when you say you are. ASK THE MALL THE POST YOUR...