The Vista — Local services in Lewisville

I am extremely disappointed in my experience as a vendor at the Small Business Expo 4/30/22. My business is a (non Christian) religious business. Though it is not our main focus, it is obvious upon visiting our booth. A young lady was walking around and approaching a number of people at the mall. She made small talk for a while and seemed genuinely interested in my business. I paid attention to her as I do for all clients, however after a while she started taking up much of my time and preventing me from engaging others who came to my booth, thus impacting my sales. She eventually asked if there were something wrong in my family unit and if that is why I had stepped away from Christ. This is WAY out of line and if mall management is going to allow this, then they should be protecting my business just the same. Freedom of religion means for all of us, and my religion is not any less relevant. She has the right to do this as much as I have the right to set up, but as a small business owner just getting started who PAID to have my booth set up, worked hard, and am trying to make my living off of this, it is honestly appalling to have someone not only affect my sales and waste my time, but try to suggest that I was raised wrong when I am, in fact, very happy with my life. My mother visited and had just left, and I wish she had still been there to hear it because she would NOT have tolerated it. I will certainly not be vending here again and will be doing my shopping elsewhere as well. The mall really needs to step up and start protecting the clients who pay to have their businesses represented and stop this nonsense. Those who don't like my booth can move along, but she literally had me trapped to the point of asking her to leave would have portrayed me in a negative light. Management, this is a big part of why the mall is dying. If you are only catering to a certain crowd instead of encouraging diversity, I don't expect this mall will have its doors open for more than a...

Yesterday my bf and I (june 17th) entered the mall early afternoon and realized our battery life on our phones were low. So, we decided to find a charging station inside of the mall before we continued our shopping. (note) A public charging station! We sat there quietly amongst ourselves. So quiet that we weren’t even talking amongst each other. After about 30 min or so of charging. A younger Caucasian female security guard approached us with her hand over her pepper spray asking us to leave. As if we were being disruptive. She gave us no valid reasons as to why we had to leave. My boyfriend and I sat there in confusion. We weren’t combative with her nor did we show any signs of aggression torwards her. Also considering this young lady looked as if we could almost be her parents age. Normally I don’t use the race card in most situations. I try to find some understanding in most situations but at this moment we were definitely being discriminated against considering, we were an Afro American couple in our mid 30s . I guess with our physical appearance looking too Afrocentric is intimidating? Anyway after we complied we took a second to grab our things (purse, charger, phones ect . She continued to stand over us as if we were some kind of threat while her hand remained hovering over her pepper spray. So after being kicked out and embarrassed for no reason at all. I decided to call the security office to speak with her boss while noticing she was still following us at a distance. The only excuse he gave us was that she was doing a wellness check as if either of us showed any signs of distress prior to. So,that got us nowhere other than embarrassed and frustrated. So we decided to just leave the mall all together and never did any shopping. This is a mall that I usually frequent to but never again! Never in a million years did we think we’d have an experience like this in the year 2022. Their management in security needs more training in...

There is a lot of hub bub about malls being outdated, not worth the time to walk around. This place is taking a new spin on the mall experience, and you should give it a shot. There is live music events on the weekend's(FREE I might add), various giveaways hosted by the mall(one coming up for Valentine's day!), And an eclectic number of new stores popping up to take the place of failed retail outlets.

For instance, there is an awesome hardware store called the Tool Box that sells name brand tools such as DeWalt, Ridgid, Ryobi, and Milwaukee. Not only do they sell them, they are cheaper than the big box alternatives, and anything I have found online. They have new and used, so even if you are on a budget, they got your back. They also have a ton of home goods, also much cheaper than the big box stores and yes, even cheaper than Amazon.

The movie theater has an amazing matinee price, under $5 a person!

The food court has some banging BBQ and a sushi/taco spot that is top notch.

Check out the super cool WWII museum upstairs!

Like cats? There is a place you can go play with kittens for rent! Right? Super cool concept, and you can even adopt one if you fail in love with a new fur baby.

There is a comic book/game shop that is pretty cool, or at least I assume so. Never knew much aside from a standard deck of cards myself.

There is a furniture shop with some pretty sweet prices and in house financing.

Get your computer repaired while you go and shop around, or get your screen replaced a little further down the hall.

All of this going on in your back yard, I'd recommend you don't give up on the community just yet, because it seems like the new owner has a sense of how to help the local entrepreneurs to find a spot to really shine!!! Keep that money local, it will come back around to you before...