Square One Mall — Attraction in Saugus

Square one mall will always have a special place in my heart, I remember going to this mall when I was younger with my family a whole lot of times and I always looked forward towards Christmas season as their decorations were always top tier and shopping for gifts was fun listening to the Christmas season music while we all chose afterwards what we wanted to eat and wrap it up to go home. However it’s been so many years and the amount of times I would go it doesn’t feel the same anymore, the food court needs renovations, and security in the place needs to become just a little more attentive when it comes to certain aspects of how to keep a place safe and peaceful, now kids enter with their bikes and do pop up wheelies in front of people nearly hitting them. The functions of this mall when it comes to the escalators are below poorly maintained now, even if they were to run I still agree it would be way better not to use them, it’s been years now that they cover up the escalators not working by putting a sign up that it’s not working so now you are obligated to take the normal stairs up and down when the mall is actually a pretty good decent size to get from one place to another. A lot of the stores are closing down and they take forever to do so aswell, the only reason customers go in at this point would have to be for something quick and then look at the puppies and be on their way now. The garage to the mall is extremely ran through, the garage is not even anymore instead feels damped as if it’s going to collapse which would be very horrifying giving the fact that this mall had rumors of closing down until they didn’t, in my personal opinion because I have sentimental attachment to this mall and am sure I’m not the only one if you give near the area such as Lynn, revere, Saugus, Peabody, Danvers etc. I would recommend they destroy the whole building and make a brand new square one mall better than ever. Its normal for the mall now to have 7 buckets in one spot due to a water leak, and if you look very closely to the roof , pieces are now starting to detach and fall, I wish I took pictures of the last time I went to prove my point but maybe next time I go I can show the examples, but due to the malls poor structure my family and I are staying out of it the most times that we can before that building collapses on hundreds of people....

Over the years I have had several employees unpleasant interactions with Simon Employees at Square One Mall.I was talked down to when I asked a question to a customer service woman once. I had a very odd Simon security officer make me uncomfortable by making some inappropriate comments about my behind, and a few other more minor unpleasant run-ins. Then today I saw that they had Santa at the mall. My three-year-old daughter has been asking when Santa will be coming to see the kids before Christmas, so I walked over to snap a photo of Santa to show her he is finally here and we can go see him. A woman working in the Santa area immediately yelled at me that I was not allowed to take photos of Santa. I understand if this is the policy, but the rude way she spoke to me and the. Smiled at her coworker who thought it was funny was incredibly embarrassing. I was with my older daughter who was mortified and angry at how the woman spoke to me and she ended up getting very upset. Needless to say I will not be taking my daughter to see the Santa at Square One Mall, and I think it’s best to just avoid this mall from now on because I’m tired of being spoken to in an inappropriate way by grown adults that should know how to speak to people without being disrespectful. I hope if I do go there in the future that management starts to do a better job finding normal...

Mall itself was borderline okay. Individual stores had some measure of sanitizing and social distance limitations, but I was very disappointed that in the middle of a pandemic there were no sanitizer dispensers anywhere in the mall proper, and no evidence of enhanced cleaning. At the food court, they only had 2 chairs per table, so of course, only about half the tables could be used, as families scrounged for enough seating. What kind of mall doesn't want families to come? And there were no benches or other seating available, so people awkwardly tried to eat standing up. And to top it all off, there was NO ONE cleaning anything! No mall employees spraying down tables between use, like other malls have, and NO supplies available for customers to use to clean tables themselves. It made me not want to touch anything.

Then, we walked through Macy's, and it looked like the Zombie Apocalypse had already happened. No employees visible anywhere, and merchandise piled Helter Skelter all over every table and draped over every rack, in piles, off the hangars, being trampled on. I've never seen anything like it before. I DEFINITELY didn't want to touch anything in there, so we beat a hasty retreat. If that's what we have to look forward to post Covid-19, I can't imagine the mall will be open...