Central Mall — Attraction in Texarkana

Central Mall is an indoor shopping mall located just off Interstate 30 at Richmond Road in Texarkana, Texas, and it has been home to many retail stores over the last 30 plus years.

Central Mall features several popular retail storefronts, including Dillard's (divided into two separate stores), JC Penny, Sears, Beall's (formerly Belk Jones), Aeropostale, Spencer's Gifts, the Buckle, Champs, and others.

It is the former home of Circus World, a toy store, which although no longer in business has since been replaced by another toy store.

It is also the former home of Texarkana's only Luby's Cafeteria location. However, Luby's Cafeteria no longer operates it Texarkana location, and its space is now occupied by a Chuck E. Cheese Pizza franchise.

Patrons may eat at a few select places. A longtime favorite, Chick-fil-A of Central Mall, is Texarkana's original location, and it remains where it has always been situated, near the Mall's West Entry at the Sears end of the mall. (Note: A second Chick-fil-A restaurant, outside the Central Mall campus, operates as a free-standing restaurant, complete with a drive through, at the Richmond Ranch shopping center, just north of Central Mall and I-30 on Richmond Road next to Super 1 Foods and Sam's Wholesale Club).

Many locals, including a group of senior citizens, participating as "mall walkers" still get their exercise in the mornings, using the Mall indoor areas as a kind of walking track.

Central Mall is well known for it's function during the Christmas season as the place where children go to tell Santa Claus all their Christmas wishes and to pose with Santa for a brief photo opportunity (there is a fee for taking a picture with Santa, however, but it has always been free for children to see Santa with their Christmas lists).

At Christmas, as well as at Easter, Central Mall may operate it's indoor children's train. This is a small train, running on a circular track, that may be running during holiday seasons, but which is usually not running at other times of the year.

Books-A-Million book store, Chili's, Taco Bueno, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Pier One, Ulta Beauty, and a Michael's Arts and Crafts store are among the retailers and restaurants located on Central...

It's a mall. Standard droning background music and the atmosphere that there should be more stores open. Has a varied, if somewhat small selection of food and plenty of seating. Favorite place for early morning power walkers to go before the shops open. Has your standard clothes stores, Gamestop, Hot Topic, Spencer's, and a convenience store at the end with surprisingly good gas station style food, but with much less regret of eating said food. However, outside the mall is where the location really shows lacking. The parking lot is a lawless, Mad Max style wasteland. The rules of the road are gone here, and narrowly dodging crazed drivers is the standard. Absolute disregard for basic driving rules or even safety of others is normal and you'll be hard pressed to make it out with your vehicle's resale value in tact. This problem multiplies during the holidays, so it's best to avoid during November and December. If you must go, park in the back areas. 2 extra minutes of walking never...

Like most malls, Central Mall has been in decline to the stand alone box stores. Sears and other large anchor stores in Central Mall have closed, or moved out. The Mall closes at 7 pm Monday thru Thursday, 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 6 pm on Sunday. They've noticeably given up on attracting young adults and those that shop after work.

What is giving Central Mall a little life is that the big box stores and chain restaurants are nearby, as in just across Interstate 30 from the Mall. That keeps some traffic flow close by.

Christmas is now less than 3 weeks away, and malls can produce a better Christmas theme than a single box store. The traffic in Central Mall was up today, but the parking lot was still 75 percent empty around noon today. Even JC Penney was very low in people parking near it.

This Mall really needs to come up with a couple of very good anchors within the Mall, soon. The vast majority of the stores are on the other side and...