Town East Mall — Attraction in Mesquite

I have been a shopper at TEM for years so I have seen it in its glory days, to its downfall, and finally its desperate attempt to reinvent itself. Despite their attempts to clean up and sophisticate this mall, it was all for naught. I was there recently to get a battery changed in my watch. Luckily, I only had to suffer 15 minutes in this place and will never go to this mall again.

First of all, the entire place smelled like a toilet. Everywhere my daughter and I walked, it wreaked of soiled, stagnant toilet water. The only relief we got from the stench was to walk into a department store. When they first re-styled this place, they put in these great restrooms which were always clean. You could count on it. Now, it's like they don't care anymore. The bathrooms were filthy with paper all over the floor, messy counters, empty soap dispensers (I had to try 3 before I found one with soap in it), and dirty stalls.

The second disappointment is there is nothing for kids to do in this mall. Sure there is the play area for little ones, but if your kid is over the height limit, there is nothing for them to do. There are no toy stores, no Build-a-Bear, no Lego store, nothing. I would have been moderately satisfied with one toy store, but there was nothing. The only thing I could do to pacify my 7 year old as we waited for my watch to be fixed was go into a tween jewelry store and look at accessories.

This mall is clearly created for tweens and teens. They used to market it as a mall for moms due to the new play area next to the great restrooms. The play area is now on the other side of the mall from the stinky restrooms. That was an inconvenient touch. Well, this is one mom who will not be returning. I'll find somewhere else to get my watch fixed...

I am not reviewing this for Town East Mall, I went into the Eva store, and I was literally walking around the entire store looking for someone, and this was the second time that this happened that I was literally searching for someone for 10 minutes, I was yelling out hello multiple times, whenever I finally found the girl she was on her phone scrolling on social media, and when I told her I needed help, she rudely said, to give her a minute even though she was doing absolutely nothing. and then finally when she did decide to come help me, I told her I needed the dress on the manikin that was a extra large, she looked at me and said I was a 1X, when I specifically said I wanted the extra large not a 1X, And then when she hands it to me, she was extremely aggressive and rude, when I reach the counter I Saul the store manager and told the store manager, the store manager was very kind, but the girl working there which I am guessing is her associate, was extremely unprofessional, I am a manager at a retail store, and I know how stores are supposed to be ran, and how employees are supposed to treat the customers. I came in to give the company money to support their business. she had dark burgundy hair, she looked younger, I don’t know if maybe she’s a kid, and she just doesn’t have any experience in retail, but it was just extremely unprofessional, and she constantly was looking at me up and down. not happy about it, don’t get me wrong their clothes are so cute, and I enjoy the clothes I got, but if I step back foot in there and she is there, I will be turning the other way, because I don’t think I could be around her, that’s how unprofessional and disrespectful...

Five stars based on what this is - a solid, mid-priced mall with a large number of discount clothing stores, as well as anchors like Dillard's, and more upscale shops such as Guess by Guess. They have a wide variety of stores, approximately 164 total, and the ones I visited were well-kept and attractively merchandised. Instead of just the same old clone stores you see over and over, Town East has several less common boutiques like Wave, Q, Edge, and the newly-opened Eva. The mall is clean and every storefront appears to be filled. This is especially impressive, relative to the condition of most other surviving malls in the Metroplex.

On my recent visit, I bought a top for $15 and pants for $25. I came across half a dozen women's stores where clothing was similarly priced. So I'm confused why anyone would complain about the prices.

I have to assume that most of these 1- or 2-star ratings are fake. If not, then they were written by someone who doesn't understand anything about shopping, or malls. If you don't like teens, don't go on weekends. If you don't like crowds, don't go at Christmas for heaven's sake. That goes for any mall.

If you're wanting a high end experience, including gourmet restaurants, stick to North Park - but frankly, most stores there are more than I want to spend, and store personnel can be snotty. If your style leans youthful and you want a fun, casual atmosphere packed with tons of affordable clothes, you can hardly do better...