So Long to the Independence Center from a LOOOONG time shopper.

Dear Independence Center;


I was quite upset after last night’s attempt to shop at your mall. I have been going to your mall as the central arena for my shopping needs since I was a child in the 1980’s. I still remember the mezzanines, with their burgundy carpet, that were the centermost part of the mall up above the food court. I always loved walking up and down them as a child with my mother pushing my sister in a stroller. I even made games of thinking what toys I’d wish to race up and down the ramps that I got from the Children’s Palace on the 3rd floor.

Though I may not have set any records in the amount of money that I have spent in your mall, I have spent a great deal of my hard earned money in your establishment, year after long year. I practically kept Sam Goody in business, all by myself, during Junior High and High school. As I grew up, I was always buying books at Border’s, scented things at Nature’s Niche, and taking my wife to get clothing at Torrid and Hot Topic. I have also been a regular shopper at Kay’s and have bought my suits and other nice clothes at Sears for almost all of my adult life along with all of my sports jerseys and jackets.

But last night while I was in your mall I was not greeted well or treated like a long time shopper. From the time I walked out of Sears and into the main area I was made to feel unwelcome to spend my money there. I was followed by two different officers patrolling your mall. They did not even try to make it look as though they were not directly watching and following me. It was so bad that one time I walked out of a shop and the officer was still standing outside the shop from where he’d stopped to watch me enter it. It got to the point that I did not ever wish to shop anymore in a mall where I was profiled with no probable cause.

I have never been kicked out of your mall; and having been alone I was certainly not breaking the: You cuss, You Yell, Groups of 5 +, or dress code rules that you have up as a standard of conduct. (I was wearing a button up white shirt with pens in the breast pocket, blue work slacks, and black shoes with a matching leather belt.) I was not causing any kind of scene, nor was I acting in any way outside of a normal shopper trying to choose the right gifts for their loved ones for the coming holidays.

I have to say this experience has made me want to never shop at your mall again. This kind of harassment of people who come to your mall wishing to spend money has been the down fall of other malls such as “The Mall of the Great Plains” and many others in recent years. In hard economic times one should never try to keep a patron, who wishes to spend money, away from any retail store. Retail has been one of the hardest hit industries and needs no further damage done to it.

I make part of my living making the community aware of injustice and wrong doing done to individuals. You have just added another issue for me to aware the public of Kansas City to. I will miss your mall, but I think you may miss the patrons of your mall much more greatly now that I will try to keep them from being harassed by those who are paid to protect shoppers like them, and myself, in your mall.



No Thank You,


Former Guest.