There was no gloom Saturday afternoon at Chapel Hill Mall.
Kids zipped up and down the wide mall halls riding motorized stuffed pandas, lions and elephants. People sipped lattes at Starbucks, playing with their mobile phones.
And Archie the Snowman — the fluffier, second version — welcomed hundreds of shoppers through the main entrance of Chapel Hill even as some began to wonder if the mall can survive.
Many shoppers said Saturday that they didn’t know Macy’s announced Wednesday it was closing. Or that three smaller stores — Old Navy, Aeropostale and Express — followed suit, saying two days later that they, too, were folding their Chapel Hill locations.
Even fewer noticed at least 10 other storefronts at the mall were already vacant.
“It’s so bright, friendly, new and clean, I’m surprised this mall is having any trouble at all,” said Marjorie Knepp, 69, of Atwater.
Yet those who did know about the closings are worried. They winced when asked if Chapel Hill could go the way of Rolling Acres Mall, the former shopping powerhouse on Akron’s southwest side that now sits rotting, its roof collapsed, a symbol of urban decay.
“I’m really hoping it’s not going to be like Rolling Acres. We love Chapel Hill Mall,” said Missy Hill, 46, who was shopping with her children Emily, 15, and Tanner, 12.
The Mogadore trio went to Chapel Hill Saturday to exchange Christmas presents and stumbled across some remarkable deals at some of the stores closing.
Tanner snapped up a $40 sweater vest from Old Navy for $8 and Emily nabbed a $50 sweater from Express for $20.
Neither store mentioned it was closing on its clearance or sale signs.
“But the clerk in Express told us this was the only store in the area having this clearance now,” Missy Hill said, adding that they found Aeropostale’s shelves almost empty.
“All they have left are sizes 000 and 00,” Emily said with disappointment.
At Old Navy, the line of people waiting to check out Saturday snaked back 20 or 30 people.
Marcus Jones, 36, and Renee Robinson, 29, of Akron, bought a large bag full of clothes for their children.
“The mall can’t survive,” Jones said.
“Too many stores are closing,” Robinson added.
Jones said he remembers when Rolling Acres started having problems, but said Chapel Hill’s issues are different.
In January 1991, a woman was mugged and beaten on her way out of Rolling Acres. Afterward the woman repeatedly complained about mall security. A few months later, there was a riot after someone thought they heard gunshots during a showing of the film New Jack City and the panicked crowd rushed through the mall.
Akron police said at the time Rolling Acres — which was twice the size of Chapel Hill — had a lower rate of major crimes than Chapel Hill.
But it didn’t matter. Rolling Acres had a reputation for being an unsafe mall to visit.
“Chapel Hill isn’t like that,” Jones said.
In August, a man was stabbed to death outside the mall following a fight that started inside. But the two men knew each other and police assured the community that the stabbing didn’t reflect larger crime issues at the mall.
Nevertheless, Chapel Hill beefed up security and hired off-duty Akron police officers.
“Look, security is everywhere here now,” Jones said, pointing to a nearby guard. “The owners won’t let what happened at Rolling Acres happen here, but I think it will close for other reasons. If stores close, people won’t come.”
Knepp, who was having a shopping day with her two sisters — Joan Mencer, 73, of Randolph, and Barb Lewis, 61, of Ravenna — had already scoured Macy’s for deals and were eating lunch from Little Japan in the food court Saturday afternoon.
All of them remember Chapel Hill, which opened in 1968, when it was new.
Knepp said she shopped out of catalogs from stores like JC Penney’s and Sears. When she came to the mall stores to pick up her orders, she’d do extra shopping in the stores.
“That helped their business, but there are no catalogs, so that doesn’t happen any more,” she said.
They all agreed younger people shopping online was hurting Chapel Hill and all malls.
“And the developers keep building all the strip retail nearby,” Lewis added. “I bet the mall, in such a big space, has a hard time competing with the rents they can offer in those strips.”
Mencer wondered if Chapel Hill’s problem wasn’t more basic.
“They don’t have what I want to wear,” she said. “I’m not ready to dress like an old lady and I don’t want to dress like a teenager.”
Mencer still shops at malls, but said she often finds things she likes better at consignment shops.
Emily Hill, the 15-year-old shopping with her mom and brother, said she is unhappy with what Chapel Hill has to offer her, too. She said she and her friends only visit three stores because everything else seems too old for them.
The mall experience is nothing like when Emily’s mom, Missy, was her age.
Missy Hill said she went to Rolling Acres every Sunday when her family visited her grandma.
“Someone would drop us off for a couple of hours and come back to pick us up,” she said. “Times have changed everywhere. You can’t do that any more.”
Missy Hill always shadows her children at Chapel Hill, hovering a store or two away, making sure they’re safe. In recent years, she said, she’s been hopeful Chapel Hill will survive because she’s seen many new and trendy stores like Aeropostale open. But then she’s watched many of them close soon after.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said Saturday. “I’m just hoping for the best.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.