A Sham of a Shop in Wolfchase Mall

Not too far from me is the main shopping center for the Memphis / Shelby County metropolitan area. The centerpiece of this area is a mall called Wolfchase Galleria. I’m not the most fond of the place, but I don’t hate it. It’s mostly clothing stores, a few specialty shops, and a ton of cell phone kiosks and the like – it has certainly seen better days, but is nowhere near as bad as other malls in the area, which are nearly, or are effectively, dead.

UPDATE: The location mentioned is now a “convenience store” inside a mall. Not the best thing, but it’s certainly not the doughnut place it was supposed to be.

https://www.xadara.com/the-wolfchase-mall-sham-shop-an-update/

Anyway, another trend Wolfchase has now is stores that come and go after their 6 month lease is up. Often times, for whatever reason, it’s little snack places, that try to be special, but don’t seem to make it more than a half season or so. I’m all for people starting up their own businesses, but it would seem if you look at the history, such novelty options don’t work out, and it would be better not to go for the Mall.

There is one place, however, which hasn’t opened at all, and has been “coming soon” for about a year now.  A place called “Dough Boy Minis” has been occupying a spot just by the food court (interestingly, this is the spot where the Arcade used to be, way back when) but has had no progress done beyond some basic paint work, and some basic signage. It looks like all construction has stopped, and it has been that way for what seems like forever.

No one really batted an eye, as this happens all the time, until last night, when a friend of mine took a few photos and inquired on their page:

So, uh, yall have had a picture of your store all set up and some bomb diggity looking display pictures here on your page, but uh, why is this all I’ve seen since like early / mid 2015??

 

 

I noticed this post in my feed when I woke up the night after she shared it, and went to go look at it myself. I’ve wondered about that place for a while now, and to my surprise, instead of responding to her, they deleted the comment and blocked her! When I went to look at the images in detail, or comment on the post, it was gone! I let her know, and that’s when she told me she was blocked by the page, which seems to have started a movement among a group of her friends. They censored her for simply asking, very nicely, why the store isn’t open yet.

Why such a hostile reaction?

Some tried to do research on the place, while others began leaving reviews that were critical of the fact that the store isn’t open, yet, according to its Facebook page, it opens with normal mall hours, and has been open since August 2015.

Not to miss out on the fun, I left my own 1 star review, and asked point blank, in my very verbose way, why the store isn’t open, and why we should, at this point, ever give them our business if they do?

I was blocked following that. You can always tell because interaction options decrease, you can’t message the page, etc, and it becomes harder to “like” the page. It’s the ultimate sign of a coward with something to hide, if you ask me.

The scary thing is this page has 57 likes, but the odds are high not any of those are from local people. Quite possibly bought out, or they are friends of the owner… which is another subject of interest. You see, if you go to the website listed for the store, it’s your nice, typical, modern “paneled” type website that looks professional as anything, and sure enough at the end, it lists details of the owner.

Now, I’m not about to call him out, but I question the validity of the story of the owner, as it seems quite fluffed. Even if true, though, that doesn’t excuse the fact that the “Flagship Store” is currently just black curtains in a corner of a shopping mall in Memphis, Tennessee. It doesn’t excuse that a store is listed on a website as open, with photos of what the store is supposedly like, a basic menu, and more, even stating that it is currently open is nothing. Might be worth noting, as well, that the phone number for the store is not a Memphis area number (read, a 901 area code.)

EDIT: On an interesting side note, discovered late last night, if you do a reverse image search on the food products shown on the website, you will get search results from all over the internet. Clearly these are not even the owners products, but I doubt anyone actually thought such.

A whois search on the domain for the website reveals at least the name is legit, along with contact information (really should look into protecting that info, buddy). Again, not suggesting anyone contact him directly, but I’m not in control of what you do.

So what is the point here? What am I getting at?

Simple. This is a store, touted as in operation, that clearly isn’t even remotely ready for business, and has not been this way for around a year now. When questioned, the page owner reacts with hostility, treating those who inquire about such as trolls, rather than legitimate concerned customers.

You may ask, why did I write this? The reason is simple. No business should do this, ever. Something isn’t right here, and I want it known that this is going on. You don’t treat my friends bad, you don’t “run” a “business” like this, and you don’t take honest inquiry like someone is attacking you, when you are lying about the very nature of having a store open in the middle of the main shopping center of Memphis, Tennessee.

I call bullshit. Look up “Dough Boy Mini’s” on Facebook, and on the web, and you will see what I mean, if the information provided here isn’t enough for you. Additional searches from friends have turned up more information on the owner, but I’m keeping this focused on this store, and this situation.

Your move, Raishawn.