I went to Trolley Square yesterday. Most of the shops are closed due to the massive renovation, but there’s still enough open to make it worth going into. All of the parts that are being worked on are walled off. One of these is the main corridor on the east side. When you walk in almost all of the hall is blocked for construction. This leaves a small lobby with two possible paths. Banana Republic is on the right side, but it only has one internal entrance, all the others lead to the parking lot. If you want to get to the rest of the mall, you have to cut through Brookstone to the left. There are giant signs all over the walls pointing out this fact with helpful arrows to tell you which way to go. The lady at the watch kiosk about fifteen feet away from the Brookstone entrance was also answering questions for those in need of further directions.

People would read the signs, walk to the entrance of Brookstone and stop. Then they’d turn around with a confused look then walk around in circles trying to figure out how to get to the other stores. In the middle of the walled off section is a door for the construction workers to get in and out. It is quite visibly padlocked. A lot of people tried to open it to go in, completely ignoring the lock and the giant sign with an arrow pointing to the way they were supposed to go. Many more ignored the watch lady’s helpful instructions.

I watched all of this for a little while from a bench by the mall entrance while having a snack of popcorn and Coke (which was bought before I came over to this side of the mall). It was quite entertaining. Made me a little sad that people are incapable of following the simplest directions though….