Empty store late at night

An icon rests
London, ON
November 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Big box retail takes on a particularly mournful look at 11:28 p.m.

The giant concrete-and-brick anchor store looms over the parking lot, fluorescent light spilling across the empty pavement. The only sounds come from the four-lane roads that surround the mall, the white noise of late-night traffic filtering in from the distance.

With pandemic restrictions now largely lifted (for now, says Omicron), this lot will be full once again when this store reopens tomorrow. Online shopping may have taken hold when we were stuck at home, but people are social creatures, and they still want to get out and connect when given the opportunity.

I'll admit it still freaks me out, and it'll be a while before I'm comfortable being here when the lot is full, the doors are open, and the stores are at capacity.

So for now, I linger in an empty, darkened parking lot and try to imagine what it was like when coming here was so much simpler than it seems to be now.

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