“You still have stores that are just confused on what’s the best direction,” Bhola said.Īround noon, Bhola continued his trip around the mall with a bag from Billabong in hand.
By going to this mall, Bhola hoped to make an appealing case for reopening to his clients. Some of his clients in retail are afraid to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. He noticed the signs still hanging on doors with closure announcements from March and watched how shoppers interacted with the mall, which he described as “slightly dystopian.”īhola works in advertising and retail marketing, which is partly what drew him to the Town Center mall. We missed you.”īhola said he spent the first hour of the reopening observing how different the familiar place was. Bhola snapped a photo of a touchscreen map kiosk that displayed the message, “Welcome back. Vinay Bhola traveled to the mall from Coral Springs. Though the mall itself is open, more than half of the stores and restaurants remained closed at lunchtime Wednesday. “But I expected it with what’s going on now.”ĭiners line up for meals at Chick-fil-a at Town Center at Boca Raton which reopened Wednesday, May 13, 2020. “It’s usually pretty crowded, so seeing it empty is a little bizarre,” Gelfand said. Her trip lasted a total of about 10 minutes. It is the largest enclosed and conventional shopping mall within Palm Beach County, and second largest by square feet in South Florida, behind the Aventura Mall. She brought bags of items to return from home, but those stores were closed. Jennifer Gelfand, of Boca Raton, said she was disappointed when she entered the mall. We’ll see slowly,” Medina said as a customer walked into the store. I don’t expect it to be the same business as before. Most will be curious to see what’s happening, what stores are open. The rest of the employees were furloughed and won’t return to work until business picks up. Medina said she and one other employee at the Anne Fontaine store were the only two who returned to work so far. Medina said this particular mall is typically slow until noon and picks up in the afternoon until it closes. Gigi Medina, the general manager at Anne Fontaine, waited to welcome customers just after 11:30 at the Town Center. They include The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, which will reopen Friday, and The Mall at Wellington Green will reopen Monday. Other shopping centers also are set to reopen in the region. The Palm Beach Outlets was one of the first shopping destinations to reopen in Palm Beach County on Monday. According to the mall’s store directory, about 20 stores were open. But customers can visit the mall’s store directory online, at /mall/town-center-at-boca-raton, to check which stores are open and their adjusted hours.Īs of Wednesday, the Apple store, Macy’s, Bath & Body Works, Express and Foot Locker were some of the closed stores. She also had a black bag.Īuthorities are asking anyone with information to call Detective Jeff Stepp at 56 or the Palm Beach County Crime Stoppers at 800-458-TIPS.Colleen Wagner, a spokeswoman for Simon Property Group, which owns the mall, said it doesn’t know about each individual store’s opening plan. The woman is described as possibly Hispanic, about five-foot-eight. She then left the store through a service exit, ran through the mall parking lot, and disappeared. The woman then asked the employee to help her but also asked them not to call police or she would be harmed. She also appeared to have some kind of audio device attached to her ear, according to police. That's when she unzipped her hoodie and revealed a small black object attached to her chest with a strap. The bizarre incident happened around 2:30 p.m Tuesday, and Boca Police say the woman is still at large.Ī store employee said the woman claimed to be in trouble.Īpparently the woman, wearing a red hoodie, a red cap, and black leggings, walked into the Apple store and headed directly toward the men's restroom.Ī store employee told her that was the wrong restroom, so the woman went into the women's restroom instead.Īfter about 20 seconds, the woman walked back out, wandered around the store, and then entered a storage area, police say.įinally, an employee confronted her.
A Florida woman walked into the Apple store at the Town Center Mall in Boca with a device strapped on her chest before bolting through a service exit and running away.
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