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.