An outlet mall! in Eagan! With Nike shoes!

The new Eagan Outlet Mall opened today. I don't understand the hype surrounding it. It's not like you couldn't buy semi-outdated clothes, shoes and accessories at equally low prices during a sale at Kohl's but people have and will continue to flock to the southern suburb of Eagan - just a short trip across the Minnesota River from the Mall of America - to buy hundreds or thousands of dollars of crap they don't truly need.

Then there's the fact that the media in the Twin Cities are running a story about it tonight.

Teenager going home with 21 pairs of Nikes for himself and family members. See Eagan's new outlet mall @ 5pm @WCCO pic.twitter.com/4gSp4saod0
— Angela Davis (@AngelaDavisWCCO) August 14, 2014

Sure, that kid plopped down over $1,000 of his own cash to buy those 21 pairs of Nike shoes.

As for this being a story, I don't really see why. Outlet malls are nothing new. I was about ten years old when the one near Medford, MN opened. It was about a half hour drive from my house and we have family in the area so we occasionally stopped there. My dad stayed in the car and my mom took me to a few stores to buy clothes or shoes. It was alright but it's not like it gave me a huge shoperection or clothesboner.

As I said, outlet malls are nothing new. Hell, Albertville, MN is on the map because it is home to a huge outlet mall. North Branch, MN has a tiny bastardized version of an outlet mall. And even Woodbury was once home to an outlet mall. It's old news to me. I get that people are only drawn to shiny, new palaces of consumerism but in ten years it will be a half-empty shit hole with a crater-filled parking lot and a smattering of stores which aren't outlet shops at all as it becomes a typical suburban strip mall complete with a massage parlor where happy endings can be had for the right price.