New Towne Mall

New Towne Mall

New Town mall is the biggest retail landscape in Tuscarawas county and opened its door on October 1988. The mall located in New Philadelphia, near interstate 77. It’s an easy drive from anywhere in the area. The mall serves the surrounding counties of Coshocton, Harrison and Carroll, because it’s convenient location. The mall has more than 50 retail stores, compare to the big city like Columbus or Cincinnati, this mall is so small and not much shopping selection, but for the small area and small town, for people whom live here, we love this mall, it’s our mall and it’s our community.

I have worked at the New Town Mall since 2005, and I am very thankful for our mall. I spend seven days a week here for most of the time, and I feel this is my second home. This mall is a good place to hang out with friends and family. Many years ago, the mall had more decent shops and was packed with shoppers. The rent prices were so high, caused several good stores to leave over years. Someone from the mall management office told me the mall used to attract 2.1 million visitors. Now, you can easily count heads in the mall during the weekdays. Even on the weekends, there are a lot less shoppers than before.

Many visitors didn’t come the mall for shopping. They are come to the mall for walking exercise, especially during the bad weather. Some people come to the mall only to hang out in the food court area, and I often saw people play poker at food court. The food court had seven fast food restaurants, but now only three are stay open. The rest of the spaces are still vacant for many years. Not only have a few fast food restaurants left, but many small retail stores have closed as well. The big department have taken over those empty space and expanded their store size. It looks like most of spaces are occupied, but in reality, the number of retail stores are less. The mall often has different kind of events and bring many different groups people here. The events like Home and Garden show, T-County Patriot show, and children story time bring many people to the mall. These events really help to bring business to all the retail stores. However, this kind of stimulus is limited, people are so use to online shopping, and there is not much to selection in the mall.

Many people have witnessed its prosperity and decline, but no one wants to see it eventually disappear like Monroe mall. We all need to go out shopping. Why drive elsewhere and not support our local economy? The local businesses really need our T-county residents support. With your support, it can help to increase employment, and local the government can collect more sales tax etc. However, the mall can not prosper if nothing else attracts shoppers. The management may have to consider reducing the rent to bring more retails store. All this requires the joint efforts of local people to see it re-emerging prosperity.