By Dick Berry - email
Posted by Lisa Strawbridge - email
BOWLING GREEN (WTOL) - On most days, the Woodland Mall is quiet and empty. At 22 years old, it has seen better days.
What shoppers do come live in small, outlying communities. That includes shoppers like Terri Nonnemaker. She's from Wayne and worries where she'll go if the mall folds. "This is going to make it rough for those of us who live in the little, outskirts of town. Have to drive farther to get to Toledo or Findlay."
Terri has a theory as to why the crowds stay away, and the mall could be in it's final days. "Lots of stores going in, coming out. going in, going out. Hard to know what's open, what's here."
A Taste of Amish deli has been there for three years. Owner Lori Hanway worked at the mall twenty years ago cleaning up the food court. She's been there through the good times and now the bad.
For Woodland Mall to survive, Lori says the place needs hands-on management, better advertising and "maybe a GAP, Abercrombie, Old Navy. Just can't get big business that can draw some traffic in here."
Hanway hopes to ride-out the final two years of her lease. If not, she'll move somewhere else and give it another shot. "I love my deli. It's my livelihood, you know."
