Add another eatery to the list of Nittany Mall businesses closing their doors.
After 24 years in the mall, Auntie Anne’s will have its last day of business on Sunday.
The pretzel shop joins several other Nittany Mall establishments to go out of business in recent months. Anchor stores Sears and Bon-Ton have both closed this year, as have restaurants RC’s Dogs, Garfield’s Restaurant and Pub and Old State Deli. The latter has since been replaced by Nittany Wraps.
Cathy Williamson, who co-owns the Auntie Anne’s location with her husband, Randy, said the loss of foot traffic in the mall, especially since the closing of nearby Sears in January, led to the decision to close the store.
‘It has come down to where we used all our savings and did everything we could to keep the store open as long as we could,’ she said. ‘It just came to the point where we can’t do it anymore. Unfortunately the traffic in the mall has really gone down and it really hit us once Sears left.’
With Sears closing, shoppers were less likely to travel to that end of the mall and nearby the busier storefronts are home to the Centre Region Active Adult Center and Planet Fitness, which aren’t particularly conducive to walk-up traffic at Auntie Anne’s.
‘We’re kind of an impulse buy,’ Williamson said. ‘If people are in the mall I can sell my product because I have a great product. But when there’s nobody here, we can’t sell it.’
She said that she and her husband will now be looking for new jobs after spending the last 24 years with Auntie Anne’s.
‘After 24-and-a-half years, it’s a little mind-boggling for us at our ages to start looking for a new one but, hey, it’s a new book. We closed this one and we’ll start a new one,’ she said.
‘We’re not enjoying it by any means. This week is going to be rough for us… We’ve been in the business for that long, and I’ve always been in retail, so I think there’s something out there. I’m not sure if that’s the journey I’m going to take next, but I think we’ll be OK.’
Williamson added that she believes the closing of Nittany Mall businesses is a a sign of the times for malls everywhere.
‘It’s really sad. But the way of the world right now is buying online,’ she said. ‘In my day we spent the weekends in the mall, going shopping and it was a family thing. Everybody’s so busy anymore it’s turned to online buying.’
