Albrook Mall – Panama City

We’ve just left the Albrook Mall and it is the largest mall I’ve ever been to. Granted, I’ve never been to the Mall of America, and Santa Fe has nothing more than mall wannabes. But I have been to the Galleria in Houston, and I think, if memory serves right, Albrook smokes it. The Mall covers three levels in some place and offers four or five food courts. There were a lot of low end stores, much like dollar stores and Walmart in quality, but there were also a few higher end stores with designer names.

I purchased a pair of Crocs in the Croc store, which I found to be more expensive than in the US, which is not too surprising. (BTW, it was a very smart buy. I ended up wearing them all the time … to the beach, for walking around, at the hot springs, etc.)  I was surprised at the low level of inventory in the store. It’s almost as if the name brand stores are trying to “dip” their toes into the market to see how the buying public will respond. I found phenomenon repeatedly in other specialty stores as well, while the low end stores were packed with inventory.

Supposedly Panama City is supposed to be about 1 million people. I’m still having trouble believing that figure given the size of the apartment buildings we saw in town, but even if that is the case, it’s remarkable how many HUGE malls the city boasts. There are at least 2 others of Albrook’s size that I know of.

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