The $7 Prize That Made Me Realize the University Mall Was Done

Before businesses shut down completely, there are usually signs that they're on the way out. Usually, they don't just close immediately - with the exception of owner tragedies such as death in the family, sickness, etc. The shutdowns are usually long, drawn-out processes. That's the way it was with the University Mall in Nacogdoches. Stores kept closing one by one, and eventually the mall became a shopping center. There was one sign that sticks in my mind that clearly hinted at its downfall.

Tracfone Prize in the Skill Game

Every mall that I've gone into has a section of skill games. You know, the claw games, the keys, the stop-directly-on-this-mark things. The University Mall was no different. It had a few of those types of games, along with some video arcade games.

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The last time I walked into the mall, this was the only prize in the only working machine:

Q107, Mark Cunningham

Yes, the one remaining prize in the machine was, in fact, a $7 Tracfone. Now, keep in mind, this was the last time I walked through the mall in 2019. If it had been, I don't know, 2003 or 2004, this might have been a bigger deal of a prize. But it was in 2019...

It was at that moment that I realized that the University Mall in Nacogdoches wasn't going to make a comeback, at least not like it was before. When your top prize in a machine is a $7 phone, not even a smart phone, it's not looking good.

READ MORE: Looking Back on Terrific Teachers Treasures in Nacogdoches

And it turns out, that was correct. It wasn't long after that that the mall closed off the majority of the interior hallway and started to convert to more of a shopping center design, rather than the traditional extended hallway design.

I just thought it was interesting that I could look back and see the time that I realized that it was going away...