Swansea Mall

[Crawford]

Nice little mall. Original anchors were Sears, Edgars and Caldor. Apex Department stores came later. Best period was in the 80's. Lots of great stores: Chess King, Midland Records, Waldenbooks, B Dalton, Newport Creamery, Papa Ginos, an A & W hotdog restaurant, 16 plus, Thom McCan, Be Dazzled, Spencer gifts and Orange Julius, etc. Had a four screen theater as well as a wonderful arcade. Fell on hard times after Emerald Square Mall opened. Seems to be coming back now the Wal-Mart replaced the Caldor with an opening into the mall. Most of the old stores are gone but are replaced with the likes of Hot Topic, Olympia sports, Electronics Boutique. What I wouldn't give for a class Julius smoothie and pretzel. Edgars is now a Macy's and the Apex store has been walled off from rest of the mall.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Crawford
Nice little mall. Original anchors were Sears, Edgars and Caldor. Apex Department stores came later. Best period was in the 80's. Lots of great stores: Chess King, Midland Records, Waldenbooks, B Dalton, Newport Creamery, Papa Ginos, an A & W hotdog restaurant, 16 plus, Thom McCan, Be Dazzled, Spencer gifts and Orange Julius, etc. Had a four screen theater as well as a wonderful arcade. Fell on hard times after Emerald Square Mall opened. Seems to be coming back now the Wal-Mart replaced the Caldor with an opening into the mall. Most of the old stores are gone but are replaced with the likes of Hot Topic, Olympia sports, Electronics Boutique. What I wouldn't give for a class Julius smoothie and pretzel. Edgars is now a Macy's and the Apex store has been walled off from rest of the mall.

I heard that Jordan MArsh opened in Spring 1988. and Apex is still vacant.

 I wbent to this mall last summer and it is not very good. I heard that Apex opened in the late 1980s and this mall was built in 1975 and 30 more stores were added in 1980.  the mall has a capcity for 90 stores. KB TOYS WAS VACANT!!! The food court is near wal-mart. I WILL NOT BE SURPRISED IF WAL_MART EXPANDS THE STORE BY MAKING IT A SUPERCENTER BY EXPANDING INTO THE VACANT APEX, they are almost next to each other. If they do this, they better not oust the food court. this mall was dingy. The SEars looks like it was remodeled years ago and it has those two square things held, meaning that must have been wehre the lettering was. I think it is more likley Providence Place took business way. I went to Providence place and that mall was very upscale. apex has been vacant since 2001.

[Crawford]

I personally can not stand Providence Place. Too many gangs and the parking garage is a nightmare. It has the exact same stores (except for Nordstroms which is overpriced at any rate) as Emerald Square or Swansea Mall so I will shop at them. Massachusetts is also 5% sales tax compared to Rhode Island's 7% so it is cheaper in the long run. I agree the mall is dingy but it wasn't always the case. The crowds are coming back. Wal-Mart moving into to vacant Apex.....sounds possible. Personally. I'd like an Old Navy to move in there

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Crawford
I personally can not stand Providence Place. Too many gangs and the parking garage is a nightmare. It has the exact same stores (except for Nordstroms which is overpriced at any rate) as Emerald Square or Swansea Mall so I will shop at them. Massachusetts is also 5% sales tax compared to Rhode Island's 7% so it is cheaper in the long run. I agree the mall is dingy but it wasn't always the case. The crowds are coming back. Wal-Mart moving into to vacant Apex.....sounds possible. Personally. I'd like an Old Navy to move in there

or a borders and Old Navy in that space would be good. I wnet to that mall on a sunday last july at 11 am and heardly anyone was there. at least it is not a 1/3 vacant, which is a sign of danger. the problem I had with providence place was the cost of parking and easiness of finding the parking garage. Why does Apex has to stay vacant?