Thinking of visiting Gainesville Factory Shops (see photo)? Well, think again.
On the outset, it appears to be a large, well-designed outlet mall on the north side of Gainesville, Texas. The website indicates that the mall’s owners are just as tired of high prices as you are. Sounds good, right?
For one thing, it’s difficult to get to if you’re northbound on Interstate 35. The exit there doesn’t have a simple cross-over bridge like many exits do. But still, you can get there.
When you do get there, the first part you’ll see is the food court. My wife and I were hungry when we drove in, so we went straight for the food court. There were places for six or eight restaurants, but all were empty. About half the stores in the outlet mall were either closed for good, or closed early (we were there on a Saturday, which should be prime shopping time).
When I asked the elderly woman at the information desk (located in the food court) if there was a soda vending machine on the premises, she said she didn’t know. When I asked about the lack of anything in the “food” court, she pointed at nearby chain restaurants, looking out the window, and suggested we go get a drink at one of them.
We did step into a book store, which had maybe six recognizable titles (unlike the zero known titles we found in the outlet store in Branson, Missouri), and we bought three books before moving on down the highway.
Very disappointing.
If you’re dead set on visiting an outlet mall in Texas, please go on down to San Marcos and visit Prime Outlets there. It actually has open stores, and seems to be thriving.
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Grapevine Mills, in Grapevine, is pretty decent outlet mall shopping as well. Bob and I went there before going to Iceland and again before coming here.
Sorry your Dallas trip was disappointing.
I forgot to mention Grapevine. Thanks, sis.
And maybe you misunderstood. The trip to Dallas was great fun. The only things that were disappointing were the Gainesville Factory Shops and the Dallas World Aquarium. Everything else, as mentioned in my Xanga blog, was pretty nice.
Obviously this place has gone waaaay downhill since Abby and I were there, and had a great time, in 2005. Drag.
Thanks for the comment, Richard. It does seem to be on the way out. Maybe they’ll get a new manager and spice it up again. :-)
Hi everybody! Do you know where I can find more information about this?
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@Nelson:
It might help if you didn’t add spam links to your post.
Also, what have you tried so far that isn’t working. I’d hate to waste my time and yours by suggesting things you’ve already tried (such as search engines).