September 30, 2013 Parkway North High School
Entertainment
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Second of Two Outlet Malls Opens in Chesterfield Entertainment Editor Thousands of St. Louis shoppers were eager and excited on Thursday, Aug. 22 at the opening of the St. Louis Premium Outlet Mall in Chesterfield, MO. After nearly a year of planning and months of construction, Simon Property Group, one of the top companies in retail real estate worldwide, opened their new development. Currently, 89 of the 90 stores in the new mall are finished and open for business. These shops include many bigname brands that are new to St. Louis such as Kate Spade New York, DKNY, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, and Armani, as well as some old favorites including J. Crew, Converse, Fossil, and Bath and Body Works. Other popular stores include Elie Tahari, Under Armour, Michael Kors, Brooks Brothers Factory, Tommy Hilfiger, Sperry Topsider, Ugg Australia, Coach, and Vera Bradley. “[The mall] was really pretty and new. I liked the American Eagle,” said sophomore Erin Armstrong. Premium Outlets is located on the south side of I64/Highway 40, east of the Daniel Boone Bridge and offers everyday sales anywhere from 25 to 65 percent off at select stores. Enthusiastic shoppers began to arrive at the mall as early as 2 a.m. on Thursday. Lines began to form outside of stores around 5 a.m. as people hoped to take part in the savings. “I went to a 25 percent off sale at one
store. My wife went to the Vera Bradley 50 percent off sale and bought a bunch of stuff. It was super busy,” said Parkway North math teacher Patrick Troy. In addition to the sales, the mall also held many entertaining events that weekend including a ribbon cutting, autographs from St. Louis Cardinals players Matt Carpenter, Trevor Rosenthal, and manager Mike Matheny, as well as fireworks. Many St. Louis shoppers are comparing this mall to its rival, the Taubman Prestige Outlet mall that opened Aug. 2 within a few miles from Premium at Highway 40 just west of Baxter. Even though this mall is easier to find and has some of the same shops as Premium, it lacks a large selection of bigname brands. Because of this, many people would choose Premium over Taubman, while some would still disagree. “I went to [Taubman] on its opening day and the day Premium opened. What I liked about Taubman is it had Gap and Banana Republic and Premium didn’t have Gap open yet or a Banana Republic at all,” said Troy. On the other hand, senior Jordan Stack said, “It’s a lot bigger and has more stores and a bigger selection. I liked Premium better than Taubman.” Also, the set-up of the stores are different. While Taubman is similar to a straight line, Premium outlet has more of a circular layout. The $100 million, 350,000 square foot development is 100 percent leased and currently features almost twice as many stores as Taubman, which is 80 percent
Photo by Sophie Wennemann
Sophie Wennemann
St. Louis Premium Outlets was filled with ecstatic, sale-seeking shoppers on opening weekend.
leased. The new outlet mall benefits not only shoppers but also employees. The development has created hundreds of new jobs for people especially in St. Louis County. Parkway North junior Melissa McDowell works at the Easy Spirit store in the new outlet. McDowell said, “It’s pretty fun, not as busy during weekdays, but fun.” She also said that working at Premium Outlets is convenient because “it’s right after school
Netflix Takes Over
and it’s not far” from where she lives. “It’s a great experience; you meet a lot of people. And [as an employee] you get 40 percent off!” McDowell said. As a result of the mall’s success and high retail demand, Simon is already planning and developing phase two of the shopping center. This expansion will add a variety of new stores to the development, bringing in more jobs and brands to the St. Louis area. “I’d like to see a Forever 21 and a Victoria’s Secret in phase two,” said Stack.
Students, Teachers Confess Their Netflix Addictions Chaney Cooper Sports Editor Netflix boasts over 38 million subscribers throughout 40 countries, and users who stream more than one billion hours of TV and movies a month through it. “I watch Netflix for at least two hours
after school every day,” said sophomore Evan Pierce. This is not an uncommon occurrence for Netflix users. Many will admit to what English teacher Mark Bannecker calls “binge watching.” This is when users watch multiple episodes or even seasons of a show in one sitting or day. “I think my record was two seasons of Arrested Development in a day, so about 30 episodes,” said Pierce on his Netflix binge watching. Senior Brie Curland said, “When I was grounded, I watched the whole first season of Vampire Diaries in a weekend. This freedom might be what makes Netflix so popular. While other streaming sites have limitations on viewing time, “Netflix members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere,” according to its online Investor’s Relationships Overview. “There are thousands
of appropriate kids shows that my wife and I will show our son that go over letters and sounds of them and things that all one-year -olds are interested in; and for teaching, it’s really nice because it provides such a wide variety of films that they have clips from… or film adaptations of the literature we’re reading,” said Bannecker. Curland said her favorite thing about the site is that “it’s always there when I’m bored.” Netflix even provides suggestions for what one might find interesting to watch based on what they’ve previously viewed. Some suggestions are less helpful than others, but are still good for a laugh. Curland told us Hansel and Gretel Get Baked was by far the funniest inappropriate suggestion for her. “It always suggests things like My Little Pony, even before I had my son. Funny they thought I’d be interested in it, but that’s definitely the weirdest one,” said Bannecker. The site also features its own original shows and movies, which have attracted quite the audience. Some of the most popular Netflix originals are House of Cards, the most recent season of Arrested Development, Bad Samaritans and Shotgun Wedding, all of which vary in genre. “My wife and I watch a lot of Netflix original series; this summer we watched House of Cards and the new season of Arrested Development,” said Bannecker.
Arrested Development is a comedy which revolves around a dysfunctional family dealing with financial woes and each other. Its first three seasons aired on the Fox network but its fourth was released only on Netflix, to the excitement of its fans. But Netflix does have some drawbacks. “It doesn’t have everything I want to watch. There are some things it’s missing,” said Pierce. Furthermore, students especially are acquainted with the dangers of getting drawn into watching. It’s effortless to click the ‘next episode’ button, especially when users should be doing something else. “I get sucked into [watching], and I can’t stop,” said Curland. Nevertheless, many find that Netflix is useful for relaxing after a day of school or work. They note the ability to sit down with a laptop and be able to let go of worries and free the mind with a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother. “Regardless of my mood, [it is] a quick source for something that will keep my interest for a relatively short amount of time,” said Bannecker. For $7.99 a month, Netflix users have thousands of ad-free hours of viewing available on their computer screens. The sites growing presence in the lives of many is a perfect example of how entertainment, along with everything is becoming more convenient and highly technologically centered.