It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Neon Memes • This past Saturday afternoon, before sanity reasserted itself, morbid curiosity almost prompted me to cruise through South County Center (18 S. County Centerway, 314.892.5203). I had visited that retail sprawl Saturday before last around 1:15 p.m.―and had known horror. Despite the current economic climate, despite the endless reports of both financial ineptitude and fiduciary malfeasance, despite the usual yuletide gloom and doom from the talking heads, the center that day was seething with people; simply to visit the Borders there (25 S. County Centerway, 314.892.1700), I almost had to park in Arnold and hoof it. (Yes, yes, yes―hyperbole. Still, because not a single space remained in the center's main lot along Lindbergh Boulevard, I perforce parked my ZX2 near the outermost edge of the Sears, Roebuck lot along Union Road, and by the time I fled, even the outlying lots south and southwest of the center were nearing capacity.) That day, presuming that the majority of the visitors there didn't constitute mere browsers or shoplifters, I couldn't help suspecting that capitalism wasn't doing too shabbily. This past Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas? I suspect South County Center resembled hell on earth―that is, heaven for retailers. ―Bryan A. Hollerbach, Managing Editor