Shoppergirl
map-marker Bronx, New York

Shopping has become a nightmare at the Palisades Center Mall

I, like many women, love to shop! Living in New York, there are many places for us to do so. We can go down to Manhattan and visit all of the luxurious shops they have to offer or we can find the ones that are just right to fit our sometimes small budgets. We can go to Woodbury Commons for some bargains, to Westchester County, you name it. One of my very favorite places to shop though has always been the Palisades Center Mall in Nyack. When this place opened, it was a dreamland for me. It was huge. A mecca of shopping! It was a place you could go to (not too far from home depending on where you live) where you could buy all of your gifts, plus something for yourself, go see a movie, be entertained, have a nice meal, grab a snack or a smoothie, meet the girls on a Saturday. It's a place I've loved to shop at for a long, long time. Lately though, it has become a huge disappointment. While there's still plenty of places to shop, eat and see that new flick, the place is downright filthy! I've been to a few movies there over the past year with friends or family and I have to say, no matter when I go, there are always these huge bugs that fly around by the screen and then sometimes come charging at you from out of nowhere while you are trying to watch the show. The floors are sticky and dirty and the bathrooms, forget about it! That problem is not just confined to the movie theatre either though! They have cleaning crews who always seem to be cleaning the bathrooms but when you go in there, they are still filthy! They smell and there's paper everywhere, broken toilets, just plain garbage everywhere. If you can hold it, you might as well! Somehow, they've managed to let birds get in there and while you are walking around the mall, you've got birds flying overhead and people ducking left and right so as not to get a surprise package dropped on their heads! Over the summer and even the beginning of the fall, I went with some friends and it was so hot in that place, we were all stripping down to what we could without getting arrested. It was like there was no air in the place. We had to leave early, everyone was grouchy and uncomfortable. So, I swore off going there for a while. Just yesterday though, while out for my annual shopping trip for the holidays with friends, they talked me into going. "They have EVERYTHING there" exclaimed one of my excited co-shoppers. So, we all went. It wasn't very crowded which was a big plus but after a while I started to remember why I hadn't been there recently. You cannot believe the amount of birds there now. Even in the stores! I was online at Target and had to duck because this huge bird came swooping at my head. There were bird droppings and when I went to complain to a manager, he looked at me, laughed and said with his thick accent "I know, what can you do?". Ha ha. Thanks a lot. The other shoppers online were looking up in horror hoping that this huge bird would not land on their heads. Then the girls were hungry so we opted for a quick *** at the foodcourt and while eating a salad from a place I won't mention here, I noticed something moving around. Upon further inspection, it appeared that there were tiny little flying creatures in my food. My girlfriend said to me "Oh yeah, I just swatted something off of my plate too". We were grossed out and I went to the place where we bought the grub and the woman who served us shrugged and smiled "I sorry". Just like that with a big, toothy grin. So, she offered to give us another dish to replace the *** crawler infested one but we politely declined. She never even offered to ask us if we wanted a refund, only more infested food. When we got back to the others who seemed to be enjoying themselves, the smart ones who got burgers and fries, one of my friends said "Hey, it's not just in the food, they are everywhere". Flying all around us were these tiny little gnats. We started to swat at ourselves and each other and then people started looking and noticing the same thing we did. People started to pick up their trays and throw their food out and walk away. We decided to high tail it the heck out of there. Onto the next shopping destination! Palisades Center Mall, what has happened to you??? You've lost a few customers and if you don't do something about your less than up to par cleanliness condition, I think you will lose a lot more. I get that when you have a place where there's food, there's always going to be garbage and possible bugs/rodents but there are such a things as EXTERMINATION and THE BOARD OF HEALTH! Please, please do something soon.
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