The other day I needed to get sized for a Tuxedo for a wedding I have coming up and the closest place to do this was miles away at Rosedale Center. While there for that, I was nearly ran over by an out of season “Holiday Train” that is quite popular in malls during the (you guessed it!) holiday season with the little tykes in Simon branded malls. They seemed to just have removed any garland or lights that would traditionally cover this modified golf cart pulling a number of wagons to create what I would guess would be called the “Mall Train” or “Tour de Mall Train”.

The saddest part about seeing this train drive by? As you would have guessed it was completely empty, probably due to it being a weekday before 5 pm with the mall nearly empty. Maybe this $3 ride is popular other days of the week and just had a lull, or this train was being driven back to the shop to have repairs done, but from seeing how many people were actually in the mall at the time my guess is that this business venture and the future of this particular mall isn’t looking that good.

When is the last time that you went to a mall to get something or to browse rather than a standalone store? When was the last time you plunked down money at a mall for a “ride” of some sort? (Heck, I would even include Camp Snoopy or whatever it’s called now.)