I don't much like that place

I've been in Albany for the past two weeks, and stopped at Crossgates to check out the new Borders, which is the first book store the mall has had in seven years. Verdict: it's just a Borders. But, in looking to see when the last bookstore there closed, I found this disturbing paragraph at the Chamber of Commerce's mall history website:

The average Crossgates customer travels more than 20 miles to get to the mall with an average drive time of a half-hour, shops Crossgates nearly three-fourths of the time, visits almost on a weekly basis, including department stores visits, according to Gina Mintzer, Crossgates Mall Marketing Director. The typical customer spends in excess of $95 per visit, shops for nearly two hours, is in her mid-30s, married, with an average household income of $41,000, and has lived in the area for more than five years, Ms. Mintzer said.

$95 at a department store every week -- that's over $4,000 a year, or about 10% of the typical shopper's household income. Keep in mind that there are basically zero necessities for sale at Crossgates, other than durable goods that don't typically need to be bought on a weekly basis. I may just be a bit more frugal than your typical Crossgates consumer (yes, my coffee table is in fact half of a desk my old roommate left behind) but that strikes me as a lot of money to drop at the mall.

Oh, and incidentally, that weekly twenty-mile trip comes to about 2,000 miles a yea Or if you've got a typical car with ~20 miles to the gallon, about $250 in gas and 50 hours sitting in the car.