Dixieland

Dixieland is definitely the most interesting, unique, and dare I say weird, shopping location that I’ve been to so far.  As a flea market, it sells things that are out of the societal norm.  Upon entrance you can immediately tell that you will probably be experiencing some place unlike any other shopping venture you have had in the Metro Detroit area. 

The hours of Dixieland are very limited.  The only times it is open are Friday (4pm until 9pm), Saturday (10am until 6pm), and Sunday (10am  until 6pm).   While this may seem inconvenient, the unique audience that the flea market targets would probably not require typical hours such as everyday 10am-9pm of many malls.  The hours in and of themselves show how drastically different this flea market is from other shopping centers.

The shops within Dixieland have everything you can think of, that wouldn’t be sold in a typical mall.  From antiques to homemade crafts, it is a collector’s paradise.  Anything you could possibly think to collect is there.  Since so much of the stuff is interesting, I took lots of pictures. 

Though seemingly disorganized and sometimes lacking clear distinctions from shop to shop, each vender seems to target a specific theme.  For example, there is a cowboy shop that sells cowboy hats and vests in one half of the store and strictly cowboy boots in the other half.  In the same way, there was a store that sold handcrafted blinds.  As seen below, there were blinds with famous faces, cartoons, sports, and they would even specially make them upon request.  Personally, I would have never thought of having decorated blinds in my home, but I guess to each his own, maybe I’m just not that artsy.  In addition, there were grandfather clocks, classic coke merchandise, cards, car models, retro toys, and so much more.

In terms of prices, Dixieland was really all over the place.  For everyday items (like mattresses, toys, brooms, tables, food) they seemed to be lower than usual prices.  Conversely, for antiques or collectables you might be surprised by the prices.  One of the most ironic things to me was the money that was being sold.  I understand that rare, older money is worth more but it was just humorous to see a dime being sold for fifty dollars. 

All of the vendors were incredibly friendly. They really seemed to enjoy their jobs and had quite interesting sense of humors.  For instance, instead of typical mannequins they used skeletons to display their clothes, as seen below.  They were also able to answer any questions you could possibly come up with about their collectibles. 

Aside from the cluttered appearance, the biggest downfall of Dixieland is the controversial merchandise.  There were sexually provocative stores and inappropriate items scattered within many stores that would not be appropriate for children.  There are also a wide variety of weapons sold at this flea market.  In addition, some of the collectibles would be considered highly offensive to different groups of people.  For example there were Nazi items.  In addition, there was drug paraphernalia. 

Overall, Dixieland was quite an adventure.  I would not recommend it as a frequent shopping destination.  Yet, if you’re looking to step outside of your usual comfort zone and try new this, this is the place for you.

The Village of Rochester Hills

The Village of Rochester Hills stands out in my mind as being a very unique and elegant shopping center.  As an outdoor mall, it uses a “lifestyle streetscape concept” to create a downtown feel.  Personally, I would enjoy this type of mall during warmer seasons because walking outside from shop to shop chilled my bones during a cold winter day.  However, I must admit that I was thoroughly impressed by the details they put into making the outdoor mall look sophisticated.  The serene setting is completed by the ornate fountains, a gazebo, and gems in the sidewalk.  It truly is a picturesque atmosphere.  In fact, other malls have modeled themselves off of the successful and well-known design of The Village of Rochester Hills.

Compared to my first destination, The Village of Rochester Hills is much smaller and has a much more narrow range of shopping options.  Here, there are forty-four shops.  The majority of these are well-known clothing stores including Abercrombie, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Hollister, Moosejaw, Parisian, and Gap.  Personally, I preferred the outlet mall because I am more interested in style than expensive name brand clothes.  However, for someone looking for the latest styles in brand name clothes, this would definitely be a great place to shop.  The people this malls targets are customers who are more well-off, which is appropriate for its location, but may not be ideal for more price-conscious customers. 

My personal favorite clothing stores in the Village of Rochester Hills is Parisian and Buckle.  Parisian is a monstrous store with two floors overflowing with clothes, shoes, accessories, make-up, and much more.  Much like the other stores, the items available are more expensive than outlet mall prices.  However, the quality of these is great.  Similarly, Buckle sells quality clothes, shoes, and accessories.  Buckle has a unique style that some people may not like, but I was certainly intrigued by them. 

Another unique characteristic of the Village of Rochester Hills is that they hold special events to increase business.  This month they are offering free yoga classes every Saturday, which they also did during December.  I think that giving back to the customers with things like this, is a great to keep your customers happy and encourage more people to check out the mall.  Other events they have done include, ladies nights, annual tree lighting, bands playing outside in the summer, and free culinary classes. 

The Village of Rochester Hills is also a kid friendly environment, though not as much as Great Lakes Crossing Outlets.   It offers a unique toystore called Rainbow Sky that kids can play in.  In addition it has Claire’s and some bears to play on.  As seen below, there is play equipment that kids love to play on too.

After a long day of shopping, there are many delicious places to choose from to eat.  Personally I love the delicious food at Max and Erma’s but there is also Bravo, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Flat Top Stir Fry Grill, Hepburn’s Crepe and Coffee, Kabob Grill, Kruse & Muer, Maggie Moo’s, Mitchell’s Fish Market, and Starbucks;  the perfect way to end the day. 

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets

As an outlet mall, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets has 185 stores aimed at offering reasonably priced merchandise.  A large majority of these stores are fashion outlets.  I found that many of the stores have truly unbelievable prices compared to the original prices!  For example, my favorite fashion stores in the mall are Forever 21 and Charlotte Rouse.  While Forever 21 is almost four times the size of most stores offering a wide range of fashion, it can be a bit intimidating because you really don’t know where to start.  Charlotte Rouse, like most of the other fashion stores is a moderate size, always offering great prices with cute quality clothes and shoes.  My roommate who is a little bit more of a diva than me loves the Coach, Bebe, and the American Eagle Outlets in Great Lakes Crossing.  Whereas, my mom prefers Calvin Klein, Chicos, and Polo Ralph Lauren stores.  Clearly when looking for clothes, there is something for everyone at Great Lakes Crossing. 

In addition to fashion, there are a plethora of jewelry and accessory, shoes, and health and beauty stores.  The jewelry stores have everything from a higher end Kay Jeweler’s to a more teen based Claire’s jewelry store.  Similarly, the shoe stores include Journey’s, Lucky Brand, The Puma Store, Sketcher’s, Payless, Footlocker, and many others.  Finally, health and beauty offers Bath & Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, and many others including services at Brow Art 23, Master Cuts, and Nail Trix.

There are many more stores which include home furnishing, luggage, eyewear, electronics, services, and much more.    

Since there are a whopping 185 store, they truly seemed to have anything you can imagine.  Out of these my favorites were Bass Pro Shop (offering outdoor activity supplies) and Things Remembered (an inexpensive engraving store).  Obviously, it would take days to describe all the stores within this massive mall but I think you get the picture.

Personally, I was captivated by the massive mile long oval that makes up this mall.  When asking an employee of a personal jewelry vender about the track-like shape of the mall, she said, “many people come here in the wintertime to walk around, we even have some women who come in exercise gear as soon as the mall opens to powerwalk laps.”  That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me!

For entertainment, Great Lakes Crossing contains a majestic movie theater.  Though I find it to be a bit pricier than most theaters, the IMAX 3D quality is pretty incredible.  In addition, there is an arcade, with a variety of entertaining games.  Also, there are a number of restaurants, including bars like Toby Keith’s Bar and Grill and Bar Louie.  These are great for Adult entertainment.  

Great Lakes Crossing Outlet is a kid friendly environment.  As previously mentioned there is not only the movie theater and an arcade but also Jeepers.  Jeepers is a small amusement park store, similar to Chuck e Cheese.  It has a cute little rollercoaster, many video games, a play structure, prizes, and much more to keep your children entertained.  I remember going to birthday parties here when I was younger and all the kids loved it, including myself!  Also, my favorite thing to do when I was a kid was to play on all the giant food in the middle of the food court.  Similar to a “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” setting, there is a giant cupcake, hotdog, cup, and other picnic items that kids can climb on while their parents eat.  It’s really a unique and brilliant idea.

Overall, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets was very impressive to me.  It seemed to have a little bit of everything.  However, the transition to an outlet mall did bring about some disappointing changes.  Unique shops like China Capital Arts were kicked out of the mall because they didn’t qualify as an “outlet” even though they did offer sales.  Other than that, I found the mall to be a great destination for people of any age.