wet tile isn't a mystery, that's either the sprinkler guy dripping off his hose or condensate running down the vent duct. somebody's on a maintenance route, they're probably there at 5am whether they like it or not.

good on them though. most places i've seen they just kill the irrigation and the plants are crispy in a month. takes one guy who gives a damn.

not weird. i walk past my first job's old storefront on the way home sometimes and just stand there. it's a phone case place now but i still smell the old grease.

cinnamon and floor wax is a good combo though. better than most menus i've worked.

gearhead that makes sense actually! i did see a hose reel by the loading door when i came in so probably the sprinkler guy. i tried to say good morning to him but he just gave me the nod and kept walking lol. fair enough, i'm a stranger wandering a mall at 7am

the nod is the correct response from a maintenance guy at 5am. anything more and you'd worry about him

i should mention the pretzel place turned into a nail salon years ago and THEN into nothing, so the smell is coming from somewhere else entirely. probably the cinnamon place near the entrance still running on fumes. half the storefronts back there just have the gate down forever now, it's a whole hallway of gates

a hallway of gates is a sad way to describe a building that used to be busy. i'd still walk it though. obviously

someone is in there before dawn watering palms that nobody is looking at and i am genuinely emotional about that. that is the most fern thing a stranger has ever done on my behalf honestly. also the little palms are not sad they are just doing their best in a food court, marmalade would sit in that planter in a heartbeat and you'd never get him out

so the guy does a morning walk-through, checks the wet spots, moves on. that's a linen closet check for a building nobody shops in. discipline. case closed: mall's not dead, it's on skeleton crew

fern marmalade in the faux brick planter is the image of the year lmao. i counted the gates on the way out btw, fourteen down that hallway and one of them still has a movie poster taped in the window from like 2011. i did not take it. i thought about it

first time posting here, been lurking a few months. i ran a sunglasses kiosk in the middle of our mall food court back in college, right in front of the pretzel place actually. the smell thing is real, i can still hit that cinnamon/wax combo in my head on command. anyway, hi everyone, this thread got me

> i counted the gates on the way out btw, fourteen down that hallway

counting is fine but post the crop of the poster window or it's just a number you liked. and for the record, someone watering plants nobody sees is not emotional, it's a route. routes are the whole point.

also welcome kiosk_kid, lurking for months and opening with a pretzel place is a strong debut

fair point on the crop!! i didn't get one that morning because i was being a weirdo standing there but i went back around 9 and got the window. poster's for some cartoon movie, tape's gone brown and the corner's peeling off the glass. took the photo, did not take the poster. mostly. it's a lot harder to slip a poster under your coat than 12-year-old me thought it would be

kiosk in front of the pretzel place is a strong position. did you trade with them or did you just smell pretzels for four hours and go home broke like the rest of us

> sunglasses for pretzels, roughly two a week

barter, at a kiosk, in a food court. this thread has accidentally documented a tiny economy.

crop appreciated bucket. browned tape means the adhesive gave up before the poster did, which is why it's still there and not on your wall. you're welcome

wren just casually explaining why the poster is still there and not on my wall like i've been personally defeated by adhesive science lol. you're right though. it's held on by stubbornness and old tape. i respect it more than i want it on my wall honestly

the tiny economy thing is real btw. kiosk kid traded sunglasses for carbs, i traded allowance money for the feeling of sitting on a warm ledge. that mall ran on vibes and pretzels

a fella watering plants at five in the morning with nobody watching... that's the same bloke who'd walk the deck at dawn on my old run, checking lines that didn't need checking. you did it because the alternative was sitting in the wheelhouse doing nothing... and doing nothing is how you get soft. the nod is right too. you don't make conversation at that hour, you're on the clock...

orange juice guy used to restock our cooler at 5am and he never said a word to me either. five years. i considered him a coworker. he probably didn't know my name

if someone archives this thread i want it printed on those little thermal receipt printers they used to have at the mall directory kiosks. remember the mall directory with the touchscreen that was just a sheet of plexiglass over a printed map and you tapped it and nothing happened? my cousin insisted it was broken for years and then we found out it was literally just a map

tape on glass is the easiest thing in the world to get off with a heat gun and a plastic blade, for the record. you just didn't want it badly enough bucket. no shame in that, poster stays where it belongs.

and oldsalt's right about the maintenance guy. the ones who walk their route before anyone's awake are the only reason anything still works at three in the afternoon

the directory thing is sending me. ours had a real touchscreen actually but it only worked if you pressed like exactly where the fountain was marked and even then it just zoomed in a millimeter. we all thought we were broken, turns out the mall was. also tern yes, two sunglasses a week for pretzels, i ate like four meals a day out of that pretzel place and they never once complained. i think they pitied me honestly

marmalade would not just sit in that planter, he would dig in it, and whoever is doing that 5am watering route would find tiny paw prints in the wet tile and i hope it makes their morning. also bucket i am choosing to believe the mostly in "took the photo, did not take the poster. mostly" and i will not be asking further questions

the 5am route guy at my building checks the dock seals before the first truck rolls in, every single morning, in the dark. asked him once why. he shrugged. that's it, that's the whole answer. case closed: routes are how quiet people say they give a damn

i do not own one but i have absolutely stood in front of a dead directory kiosk and pressed the printed map like an idiot so. same energy. my cousin still brings up the map thing at holidays btw, it's entered the family lore as "the time bucket tried to use a poster"

the ledge is warm because of a vent and the tile is wet because of a route and you've somehow turned both into a childhood memory. that's fine. that's actually the correct use of a food court ledge. also

fluorescent lights partly off in that photo means somebody killed half the ballasts on purpose, that's not neglect that's a schedule. and if that vent's been blowing at the planters for 20 years someone's been underneath that ledge replacing tape at least twice. probably the same guy on the watering route. hi marmalade btw, nice planter

tern the pretzel place is gone, it's a phone repair stall now which is honestly the most mall thing possible. and yeah gearhead i never thought about who maintains a vent under a ledge nobody sits on anymore. whoever it is, you have my whole heart, the palms are still alive because of you