Franklin Mills Mall

Ah, malls. The favoured haunt of 1980s teenagers everywhere. These days, malls have split into a number of sub types. Franklin Mills belongs to the type known as the outlet mall. All the shops heavily discount their merchandise, offering bargains you just won’t see in standard malls. This is because they are offering last season’s clothes, or slight seconds or less popular lines (generally). Therefore you can snatch bargains at more than 60% off in cases.

The mall is truly huge. I have been a number of times, often for Christmas shopping. Many of the main brands are there - Levis, Reebok, Sacks and so forth. You can buy clothes (and there is no sales tax on clothes in PA), jewellery, food, and 'stuff’ - just like you can in an ordinary mall, just much cheaper.

The mall is laid out in coloured zones, making it easier to arrange to meet someone, and to find your car, as you tend to park nearish one of the coloured zone entrances. There is TONS of parking - you’d have to be very unlucky indeed not to find a parking space.

In addition to the stores, you’ll also find the stalls set up in the centres of the walkways. These can get annoying, especially the people who mug you to try to sell you some sort of seaweed nail treatment - it got to the point where my daughter and I were actually running from them!

The mall is clean, and attracts a wide range of shoppers - all shapes, sizes, ages, and circumstances. You see quite a few parents with children, as you might expect. There is also a cinema and food court, along with a couple of 'actual’ family restaurants - we often eat at Ruby Tuesdays when we’re there.

I cannot stress enough how big this place is - if you try to do the whole mall, you will be footsore and tired by the end of the day. Even if you know what you’re looking for, chances are the shops you want to visit are some distance from each other. There is, however, only one level, so at least you don’t need to walk it twice.