Indian River Mall — Local services in Vero Beach

A long time ago, malls like this was packed with people. Stores open one end to another. Find anything by coming to the mall. Not so much anymore. Most of it is the greed of the Management of the mall. Rather let a empty lot stay vacant than make a deal with cost of lease. IRM is an example of what a dead mall looks like, as the disease part of the mall is vacant. The whole arm of one side is vacant. And spots here and there of what once was, now tarped over because they could not make it. Just drive the parking lot, and see the deterioration. The asphalt growing weeds in the cracks in spots. The ground rising in others. The lot's parking spaces are dimmed and misleading, that parking looks haphazzard. Walking in the AMC side, the food court is barren, minus the Asian place and the Pizza shop that sold tacos as well, was open. At ground level, the place is clean enough. It is when looking up at the eaved roof, when the nasty is apparent. The roof leaks in places. It shows. There are electrical boxes that have shown signs that the Fire Department should had been called. Today was a good day to walk the mall to find out if the IRFD was needed or not. The anchor stores Dillard, and Penny's were open, and the majority of the mom and pop stores were located near these. I was reminded of a time when there was an organ store in all malls, when I walked past the Music Store. Quite refreshing to see the dream is still alive. I was looking for something specific, and of course, that mall was not a place to find it.. Today. Maybe it would had been there 10 years ago. Not now. And probably not tomorrow, by the way things are from a standards point of view. If Amazon is your goto, take a few minutes out the day to visit your local mall. Money wise, no one can compete with them, and those thinking.. "Why go out, when I can click 'Order' and it would be here in a hour?". No, you are right. And maybe you have the resources not to depend on anyone for your income so you can order online. And the prices are better. They don't care if you return it for not fitting. Keep it, here's another one for your trouble. Mom and Pop depends on their children to keep them up. That would be you, if you didn't get that. There's no fortune to be made by doing a store in a mall. Those are done by an idea of selling books online from a garage... That belongs to their parents.. Mom and Pop. And the pandemic cannot be made as an excuse either. Zoom has it's benefits, but it cannot open your mind to a surrounding that is not your living room, and if you did decide to visit a mall.. Hang out.. Buy something.. Ball bust the T-Mobile shop about new phones.. Walk around. The more people in there, the more shops will want to come. The more shops, the more people want to spend money. More money, means they can take care of the relic building... And if you want to really go there with it.. Go back to 1987 with me. When Saturday was an all day event at the mall. Money or no, there was always something...

This mall used to have everything, but now it's just a shell of a building with a bunch of vacant shops, a church and a few local merchants trying to sell their 'goods' which look like collective yard sales at higher prices. UPDATED: As for anchor stores, they're slowly fading away. Sears is long gone. Macy's is GONE! JCPENNEY is thinly stocked with limited sizes/qty... Always looks like they're waiting for a delivery. Add insult to injury, they've stooped to the "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS-EVERYTHING MUST GO- 70% OFF" mentality creating a total scam for the less than savvy buyer. (Example: December 2022- I bought 3 Ana tshirts for $4.95 each on a Doorbuster sale. Reg. price advertised at $14.95(?+/-). (Regrettably, I only bought 3 of the 5 or 6 colors and absolutely loved them.) Waiting patiently for the clearance... April 2023: Enter the clearance "nook" : AT 70% OFF NOW $9.96?? HOW??😳 And the tags now say these tshirts WERE $34??? Something's seriously wrong!! That's not how you treat your decades long loyal shoppers! Dillards is gaining more floor space each time I go in there, but still the best bet for finding something, although other locations carry a much larger size range. Bath and Body Works, a shoe store, Spencer's and Victoria's Secret (NOW GONE) are about the only actual stores left in the meat of the building. The rest are as mentioned above plus a table tennis(ping pong) league, a martial arts center and Halo adoption center (A MUST VISIT EVERY TIME I walk through the mall and although I can't adopt right now, I make it a point to drop a small donation through the glass to the kitty that collects it ❤🐱. HALO does wonderful things for our furry friends.) It's a shame that this once thriving location has become this way over the last few years. The mall owners clearly became too greedy with rents, not paying for upkeep or utilities. (Yes, they were even threatened with power being cut off for nonpayment ) Most of the parking lot lights no longer work so be careful and know your surroundings if you go there after dark. They say they are trying to attract small private businesses to fill the vacancies, but what has arrived so far seems to lack the ability to...

This is the story of how I got trespassed from the Indian River Mall after someone tried to stab me in the parking lot.

I was at the AMC theater at the Indian River Mall suffering through the movie Stuber. Fortunately the power went out due to the storm raging outside. As I left the theater to return to my car, a lady didn’t stop at an intersection while talking on her cell phone and almost hit me. I tapped one time on the side of her car with my knuckle.

She slammed on the brakes, threw the car in reverse and attempted to hit me again. She then verbally threatened to run me over. I continued towards my car, only interested in getting out of the rain. At this point I had not spoken a single word to her.

As she got out of get car, she then stated "You know what. I got something for you'. She then brandished a knife and threatened to stab me.

She was close, she was mad, she had a knife and was threatening to use it. I fled to my car. After getting inside of my car she started attacking the window with her knife. She was then able to open my door.

I drew my gun that was stored in my vehicle. She immediately retreated to her car and fled. No shots were fired.

I got her tag info and called the sheriff's department. She left the parking lot and called as well.

When speaking with the sheriff’s deputies, we had a 'he said, she said' situation, there were no useful witnesses. She was able to dispose of the knife.

The deputies handled the situation very professionally, though did seem like they just wanted to wrap things up. No charges were filed and no arrests were made. Both parties were trespassed from the mall property.

I thought “This will be simple. I’ll just call the mall office on Monday and get the order rescinded.” The head of security at the mall informed me that the order will remain in effect and that I “should have dialed 911” instead of protecting myself.

To the staff and management at AMC, Friday's, Sears and Chick-Fil-A; it's been nice and I wish you guys and gals luck.

TL:DR Don’t go to the Indian River Mall, they have crazies that will try to stab you and you aren’t allowed to...