Buena Vista PicturesThough you'd now have to pay me to take a victory lap around the congested, incubated, soul-sucking cesspool also known as a shopping plaza, my youth depended on the object permanence of one such institution. (Shout out to Montgomery Mall, you beaut, you.) And if you were anything like me, the idea of spending your entire Saturday expertly plotting how best to spend a crisp Jackson, the following likely applies to your Rocket Dog-wearing, Kate Spade-obsessed, navel ring-coveting former self:
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below1. You took a "break" between marathon sessions to nosh at the food court. You often took several.
2. You owned a bag of those (now-debunked) plastic earring backers from Claire's.
2a. (You never used them.)
3. Sweet Factory was your Mecca.
4. You were either an Arden B. girl or a Bebe girl. And you were loyal to a fault.*
5. You pronounced it "Bay-Bay," not "Bee-Bee."
6. You had to bring a note along with your mom's credit card (if she lent it to you, which was absurd.)
More From ELLE7. (And you knew which stores weren't playing that game.)
8. You found a pricey apparel hack by shopping at abercrombie. (Little a, monster savings.)
9. You thought Caché was next-level chic.
10. You triiiiied to get down with the tasteful selection at White House Black Market...
11. ...but always ended up buying the strapless tube dress with the beadwork and movement fringe from Wet Seal.
12. Panda Express was your jam. (Or Koo Koo Roo for you left coasters.)
13. Instead of putting things on hold, which was also a go-to move (**here you go kind sir, it's one thousand bandana tops I shan't be retrieving!**), you stealthily hid "maybe" purchases under a pile of angora sweaters so that no one else could snatch them.
14. Aldo footwear played a significant role in your life...
15....so did PacSun.
16. But nothing compared to Brass Plum. (And its majorly lax return policy.)
17. One day you woke up and realized that you had graduated from The Limited Too to Express. For whatever reason you straight skipped The Limited.
18. Mall dates with a boy were the dream...
19. ...but you'd settle for just helping them get their prom tux at the rental joint.
20. You had an established route. As in, "Okay, we'll start at Nordstroms and then fan out on the left side and hit Victoria's Secret, Contempo, Papyrus (for funsies), Structure (for the fellas), Lady's Footlocker (just in case), and circle back around to Guess?. BREAK!
21. You would get butterflies in your stomach when you approached your favorite store. **Holy effbombs, they have an Esprit here??**
22. Bath & Body Works was a full-on thing.
23. And Pear Glacé was religion.
24. You could happily spend dusk 'til dawn without natural sunlight or fresh oxygen on a beautiful summer's day.
25. In fact, you preferred it that way.
*Arden B. for lyfe!