h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This review pertains to malls in the metropolitan Denver area.

Unfortunately, the three malls in Denver that were unusually decorated and had interesting architecture are no more. The first was Cinderella City, which for some time, was the largest mall west of the Mississippi River. It had different "sections", each called by a different name and color. I think they had a Gold Mall, A Rose Mall, and there was a section downstairs called Cinder Alley, which looked like an old street outdoors, complete with a street and curbed sidewalks with stores in each building facade. As a kid, I remember a department clothing store called Neusteters, which had a large spriral staircase that went from the first level all the way up to the third level.

The next mall was Villa Italia, which just closed last year. This mall was designed like a roman villa, complete with columns and statues of romans. In the mid 1980's, the mall underwent a major renovation, and they got rid of most of the statues and added a second floor. After the remodel, it looked just like any other mall that you would see in America.

The last mall is still in existence, but its glory days of the 1980's are over. That mall was Tabor Center. When this mall opened in 1984, it had a distinctly trendy and 1980's look about it. It was a large glass structure that was green in color and looked somewhat like a factory. Tabor Center had everything in it that that was definitive of the 1980's. There was a Sharper Image, a Brooks Brothers, Rocky Mountain Records and Tapes, a GNC, a B. Dalton Bookstore, and a food court that was the end all be all of food courts. My personal favorites to eat at were Myers and Wolfe, which served the best hot dogs and hamburgers around. I also liked Betsie's Brownies and Panhandler's Pizza. When Panhander's Pizza closed up shop, someone had written on the whiteboard where today's specials were posted, "so long and thanks for all the fish".

Indoor malls in Denver are increasingly being replaced by the large strip malls which do not have an indoor mall to walk around in. These strip malls have stores that are much, much larger than they were in the malls of past decades. In Lakewood, Westland Mall was torn down and replaced by another Westland Mall that is a strip mall. The stores are mainly half price stores like Gordman's and Big Lots!. Avoid going to Super K-mart at Westland. Super K-Mart is always busy with hundreds of people wanting to buy store items, but often, there are only 2 or 3 people running the check out registers at any given time.

Another Strip Mall that has now become typical of most strip malls is the Denver West Mall off of Interstate 70. There is a Barnes & Noble Bookstore that is about the size of a supermarket, and a United Artists theater that has 12 movie theaters, each with stadium seating. There is also a Bed, Bath and Beyond, an Office Max, and a Soundtrack.

The best place to go and buy shoes, if you have a shoe size of 12 or greater is Nordstrom's The Rack in the Park Meadows Mall. They have women's shoes to size 14, and Men's shoes to size 17. The shoes are also incredibly inexpensive -- I bought myself two pair of shoes, a pair of Rockports and a pair of New Balance walking shoes at a cost of $110!