Day 3 - Shopping and the Muny

My children wanted to go to some specific shops to get some things which are cheaper in the US then they are back home. This took us into St Louis to the mall and other shops on the way.

A second hand bookstore was a nice little treasure trove of books whilst the goodwill shop was like a UK charity shop with a difference. The business model here was genius. They take donations from people and then price them and sell them for profit. Literally people are giving their unwanted items to a business that then sells them on, for a fair price, but not ridiculously cheap. As a retail outlet this is genius, no cash is tied up in your own stock. This is where lots of businesses fail by having no cash flow due to it being tied up in the things they are selling.

The mall is not so dissimilar to any indoor shopping center in the UK. Department stores, clothing shops etc and Rhett explains that in their prime these would be a busy bustling place where everyone would come to hang out. Sadly there wasn't much evidence of that today. We hit the St Louis dugout store and got some new cardinal tops and had a look around the others.

Heard my first "I love your accent" to which my customary reply "well, I love your accent too" was met with a laugh as usual. The remaining conversations with the shop assistant revolved around the usual nuances of language and in this particular exchange a conversation about pants (trousers) in a bag.

The mall has obviously fallen victim to the change in consumer shopping habits especially since the covid pandemic, but the surprising thing for me was that almost all the shops we saw had now hiring signs. My eldest who is looking for a part time job would have jumped at the chance and he said why can't this be the same in Worthing.

The Muny is the second largest outdoor theatre in the US. It seats nearly 11,000 people in this large amphitheatre. We were here to watch legally blonde the musical which was a good show, well staged and we were informed at the start about the flooding the previous day that turned the backstage area into lake Muny. 

I have since discovered that the last 9 rows are free. Every show, every performance has these free seats and has been the same for the 100+ year history of the Muny.