The Sun Was Shining, I Went to the Mall

I dipped into the The Shops at Mission Viejo today and came across this, where Crate + Barrel was until a few months ago.

Euro fast-fashion chain, Zara, will soon open across from Caché and between Chico's and Bebe — three stores that are pretty emblematic of this cultural terrain (and I want to stress the extreme looseness with which I apply the term "culture" to southern Orange County). It's an interesting development in a mall where stores have been closing left and right (Kate Spade, Kenneth Cole, Mercer and Forever 21's Heritage 1981, to name a few), or have played musical chairs from floor to floor.

The majority of the mall shoppers around me today were stroller-pushing moms in capris and Gap knits, so maybe knocked-off goodies like this, and this will be ripe for my own picking. Who knows? If it's as picked-over as the outposts in South Coast Plaza and The Grove, I'll continue to ignore it the way I do the rest of the mall. But if it has a kids' section...bye-bye, money.