Went to the Laurens outlet that opened today. Around 7pm the store was dead to have just opened today. Noticed there are no more fitting rooms and with no returns, that’s not very ideal. Saw a manager, an employee on the sales floor and an cashier at the front checkout counter. There is also now a rent a cop at the door (weird since it’s a safe area and there have never been any big issues)
The home department is the same merchandise as before the outlet, absolutely no new home stuff. Tons of clothes. Designer stuff is few and far between but placed prominently to make it look like there was more than just endless Zelos or Cabana behind it.
The store no longer follows the walkways around the store, they put shelving to where everything is a straight line and almost maze like. The shelving sits on carpet and the old tile walkways in areas and looks weird. Tons and tons of shoes, probably the best department in the store, they’re on very tall wooden racks.
Overall, I wasn’t too impressed but it was better than what was there before. But I’m sure it’ll go from the 100% tidy state it was in today to a junk pile within a few months. At first I had thought they closed early for the night because the parking lot was so empty. If this is supposed to save belk, not gonna happen!