Jamie Hampton
jhampto6@uwyo.edu
A common complaint I’ve heard when speaking to my friends is that we simply do not have enough places to shop in Laramie. When you think about it yourself, we really don’t. Unless you are an avid shopper at Maurice’s or Wal-Mart, I’m sure you can agree with this fact. I’m not saying the shops that we do have in town aren’t great, I’m just saying that a little more of a variety would be greatly appreciated.
The solution to this problem is as easy as building a shopping mall in Laramie. I know there are many people who believe that shopping malls are going out of style (see what I did there?), but hear me out.
Shopping malls don’t only offer many more places to shop for clothes, but they also provide more food options and other various, fun shops. Let’s take a minute to think about the shopping malls near us that we have the option to go to instead of shopping in town (which, you should always shop in town and support the community).
First, there’s the depressing thing called a mall in Cheyenne, which if you ask me, isn’t really worth a trip besides the fact that they have a Pretzel Maker. I mean, come on, their American Eagle just closed. Then, there’s the mall in Fort Collins, which isn’t even fully opened after renovations yet. Although all the stores may not be open, they still have a better selection of clothing stores than Cheyenne and Laramie combined. Finally, we have malls in Denver—including Cherry Creek and 16th Street Mall—that I’m sure many of us students make day trips to.
Honestly, if you’re anything like me, you take all of your business online to shop with retailers like Forever 21 and H&M. What is unfortunate about this is that not getting to try things on can really lead to some major frustrations when you order the size you normally wear but it fits awkwardly. Then you realize that going through the return process just isn’t worth it so you keep and sell it to a place like Plato’s Closet where you get $3 for a $25 shirt.
Why not cut all of that frustration out and just add a shopping mall to Laramie?
Laramie would be a great candidate for a shopping mall; with it being a college town I’m sure it would get tons of business and offer a place to go when there’s nothing else going on, which we all know happens a lot in a town like Laramie.
I can only hope that someday this is a reality in Laramie. Until that day, we will have to continue to do my shopping online and continue to be frustrated by its obvious inconveniences.
