Military Circle Mall

The real problem with the mall is it’s not safe due to black mob violence and black singular and group violence — on a regular basis. It’s well documented in tv reports and news articles. You can even see videos of it on YouTube.
It’s killed that mall. Pity too, it was a nice place. So many jobs lost…

Mall? This big building has a few stores still open, the entire place smelled like weed. No way I would recommend stopping in.

The place was clean, however the first person I encountered was a lady in the restroom who was apparently strung out on something. Staring at herself in the restroom mirror, mumbling, and throwing water at herself. She started at me and followed is for a few minutes. Very weird and uncomfortable. We walked through the entire mall, better referred to as an inside flea market, that’s the kind of vibe it had. The security guard was friendly, but the rest of the people looked at us like what the hell were we thinking coming in. Yep, won’t make that mistake twice…

We went to mall to eat before we watch a movie. It is ghost town. Very few stores and no much selection. There were not places to eat. It is ashamed we have mall like this Hampton Roads. It was how our region is. I would not recommend anyone to attend. No excitement and no environment for the family.

Military Circle has changed a lot since childhood, but it serves our purpose: Nike kicks and Victoria’s Secret! There are dozens of athletic shoe stores with huge Nike selections and dope music playing, and Victoria’s Secret always has my size. All the salespeople are super nice and helpful. An added bonus: my family loves watching Tagalog movies at Cinemark. Too bad 20+ stores shut down, but less people loiter there than at other malls.

Take away the 20 empty stores. Take away the Sears. Take away the JCPenney. (Not like I really shopped at those stores anyway…) What do you get? A glorified Nike shoe outlet. Foot Locker, Footaction, Shoe City (sing the song in your head), Legends, Champs… Chances are you’ll find a pair of shoes at Military Circle.
The days of lots of people going through that mall are over. It’s a ghost town. Almost like Chesapeake Square Mall.
The mall itself is no good but it’s the stores inside that reel you in to shop. I wanted new Nikes and I knew just the place to go. This mall and adjacent business district could use some rejuvenation to bring back the business that this area once had.
The Chinese fast food is still holding its own in the food court. And we all know my love for Chinese food and rice.

This mall has been dying for over a decade. Loss of the DoubleTree Hotel, Sears, and JCPenney seriously put this place into terminal cardiac arrest… but there were strokes suffered from departures like Waldenbooks, Radioshack, and GameStop. I think the coroner will give a death certificate once the upcoming outlet mall being built on Lake Wright Golf Course is finally completed. I suspect the movie theater, the last saving grace of this place, will relocate there when it happens.
Just save yourself some hassle and drive the extra miles to Pembroke or Greenbrier. Those malls at least put effort into staying alive. Military Circle has unfortunately turned into a zombie that just won’t stay down.

I love this theater I think the screens are great it’s never crowded and they have more than one 3D showing, they even show movies the day before they come out sometimes which is awesome, it is one of my favorites for sure

I used to come here a lot as a child and visit Sears, JC Penny, and other stores with my mom and grandma. In the 70s, this was a retail hotspot! My family did lots of shopping here.
It is important to note that my brothers and I were never allowed to come to the mall alone or with our friends. Most of my friends’ parents didn’t allow this either. Times have certainly changed. Many parents often drop off their tweens and teens here who wander the mall and tend to create disturbances with the shoppers. There are no rules in place regarding children being alone in the mall. I understand Military Circle Mall is going through some changes, however, I strongly recommend they create a curfew and increase security. In any mall, especially in urban areas, there should be a curfew for minors. The message needs to clear: A shopping mall is not a babysitting service for your children.
This mall has continued to, like most malls, to display student artwork from students in the area. Children look forward to seeing their artwork on display! They also have family events here from time to time. Universoul Circus will be held her in the Gallery next week (photo with details provided). I’ve attended this event here twice and each time was a blast!
I understand that Military Circle Mall is facing foreclosure and that Norfolk Economic Development Authority has purchased the JC Penny building. I’ve read in the newspaper that they did not have enough money to purchase the entire mall but once it goes into foreclosure I’m sure investors will jump right on it. It is in a central location and there is so much that can be done here to give this area a boost.

Place needs to be torn down and restarted all over again. There is so much land here that it’s a shame that this dump is in disarray. Big upscale restaurants and shops can really bring new life to this area in town

Needless to say, this mall is just as hood as the area that it is located. Went into a few non-​chain stores. I was not greeted. I asked the young lady what the return policy was and she looked at me for a whole minute and responded, «You can only exchange or get store credit». That was my cue to get the hell out of that store. Number one, the return policy sucks, number two, the clothes were of very cheap quality, and number three, I refuse to spend my money in a store where I do not feel welcomed. I am not sure what the name of the store was called. There are two of the same stores in this mall, also.

This mall has lost of a lot of useful stores. It used to have JCPenney, Sears and Chick-​fil-​A which are major draws to the mall scene. There is not much in the food court. However, there is a nice «dollar store» (not Dollar Tree… this is privately owned by a friendly family) and a variety of «hair stores» where you can get low cost beauty supply products such as relaxers. When it comes to «non-​urban» clothing for women, your main low cost option is Ross (which is a discount store). They have Dillards which can be very pricey.
If you are into sneakers, there are a lot of sneaker stores here. As for the safety… this is Norfolk. Norfolk – in my opinion – is more ghetto than Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. This mall is no exception to that. However, they are patrolled a lot by security so if anyone is following you or engaging in «street harassment», report the person. The main draw at this mall is the Cinemark Theatre. It is the cheapest theatre in this area. Also, they have an «early bird» special if you see the first matinée of the day.

Safety: I moved to Norfolk a little over a year ago and loved the idea of a mall less than 10 minutes (5 without traffic) from where I live. However, that joy was taken away when a week after moving here there was someone shot inside of the mall. Since then, there have been multiple violent attacks inside or right outside of the mall with one gun related (that I know of). As for walking around the mall, I haven’t had a bad experience. There are some people that seem to linger in areas but I’ve never had an uncomfortable experience personally. –Some comments say they see security walking around, I never have but I also don’t go on the weekend.
The mall itself isn’t exciting but it does have the basic shops I like: Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Macy’s, Ross and Payless. So, it is still alright for a quick stop for something. I can’t complain about the cleanliness of the mall, it has never been dirty while I’ve been there. A lot of the shops are the typical «this mall will most likely close soon» stores.
Why do I go? The movie theater. It isn’t a ritzy theater by any means but the tickets are the cheapest in town ($ 4-​$ 4.50) and plays the latest movies. The concession stand items are also not outrageous prices like most places. You’ll still probably spend around $ 10 but it is way better than $ 25! They don’t offer military discounts but the prices are already crazy low, as is. Monday is seniors day. I go here a lot for movies I only want to see or just for something to do during the day. No complaints.

I’ve seen stores come and go at this mall over the years since the first time I ever came here. They have security there, but it doesn’t seem to be a deterrent for violent crimes taking place.
Military Circle used to be home to some of the better department stores (Thalhimer’s, Leggett, Sears, etc.) and, OH, the best and most realistic Santa EVER! This place is often like a ghost town with little to nothing going on. The stores that exist here now are more along the lines of flea market type stores, especially what they call «jewelry» stores.
Don’t waste your time or money going here, not even in a pinch.

This mall was such a nice mall when I was little and first moved to Virginia, but as the years have gone by it’s slowly became more and more depressing. The stores and restaurants slowly closed down one by one, and started getting replaced by ones of lesser quality. There’s not even a good place in here where I can purchase a smoothie anymore.
The last time I was here this weekend almost every store was overpriced, and the customer service here was less than desirable. And one store literally smelled like cigarette smoke, yuck! Despite this however there are a couple of saving graces to this mall. The first one is Ross, where you can find good quality name brand clothes/​products for reasonable prices, and the second is the movie therater with an amazing matinée price of $ 4.75 (you just can’t beat that!) Overall, this mall needs some major interior rennovations in order for it to be returned to its former glory.

So, before starting my own, I sat down and studiously went over the reviews from my fellow Unilocalers, and, wow. Just… wow!
You can learn a LOT about a person’s deep seated beliefs and ideology by carefully reading what they write. They will reveal who and what they are and when they do, believe them the first time. And people wonder why I’m such a loner… smh.
I think it’s safe to say that Military Circle Mall doesn’t have a solid reputation. At all.
The Gallery at Military Circle (which I’ll be abbreviating as MCM) is located near the crossroads of perhaps two of the busiest roads in the entire region: Virginia Beach Boulevard and Military Highway. The mall serves as the «anchor» to perhaps one of the biggest retail hubs in the region.
There are two «flagship» stores in JC Penny and Macy’s, then there are national retailer stores like Footlocker, Champs, Footaction, Finish Line, Ross, Bath & Body works, Victorias Secret, Payless, RadioShack and a Journey’s. Outside of that there’s some stores I’ve seen in other malls or retail areas like Shoe City, Rainbow, DTLR, Game Stop, and Lids. The remainder of the store fronts are kind of mom and pop-​ish. I mean, some of them are cool like the Discover Life and African Art Bookstores and others focus on offering services and convenience like Dollar Green and CompuSpot.
In comparison to the region’s other malls, MCM falls short in establishing itself as an attractive destination. Don’t get me wrong, there are deals to be found, but the mix of stores doesn’t cater to a «balanced» crowd. That’s indicative of mall management and leasing and… believe it or not, city officials.
Case and point #1. MacArthur Center Mall is located in an even more urban part of the city — it doesn’t get much more urban around Hampton Roads than downtown Norfolk — low income projects or the «ghetto» lies right across the street (think I’m lying? Look behind Popeyes on St. Paul’s Blvd). Yet, that mall doesn’t suffer from the same afflictions as MCM, and for reasons that I’m not going to go into detail in this review (but if you’re reading between the lines you can see where I’m going).
Case and point #2. Look at Pembroke Mall in Va Beach and how that place transformed back into something of a destination; the city leaders of Va Beach weren’t going to have a sparkling new Town Center sitting next to an outdated mall in squalor. Military Circle sits in squalor on prime real estate for a reason. It’s not by happenstance, it’s by design… but you didn’t hear it from me.
*sips tea*
The main reason I visit MCM is to patron the Cinemark movie theater which, to ME, provides some of the best bang for the buck out of all the theaters in the area. To date, I haven’t been a victim of a crime, I haven’t dodged any bullets or had my car broken into. I keep my head on a swivel at Chesapeake Square just as much as I do at MCM.

Only 2 reasons why I ever went to this mall. 1. food court (mainly sarku japan and my love for their chicken teriyaki) — 2. my church (which happens to be right across the street) bookstore. I would list the movie theater as number 3 but it would fall under the default category. For some reason this cinemark theater didn’t always play all movies, especially the new ones out at the time. It always seemed to prove being the popular hang out for teenagers. So the food and my church’s bookstore are good enough!

mall: hellz no. the stores are out of control: wig store for strippas. awesome for people watching but i meeeeeeaaann, come on now.
movie theater: yeah yeah!
the movie theater is the ONLY reason to come here.
really, really nice workers at the movie theater. great movie theater. it’s «clean-​ish»… that’s my full description.
if this was nova, id be a #NoVaSnob about it, but it’s not.
i recognize.
so it’s a… «great movie theater and it’s clean-​ish.»

If you’re a fan of getting shot while looking for some news shoes then this is the place for you. Enjoy muggings and testing the integrity of the locks on your vehicle?
Come on down.

I grew up in Virginia my whole life and I watched this mall go from one the primer malls to an outdated and unsafe environment. The stores are 80% empty and lost a sears and soon jcpenny will join.
I was on my way to watch a movie at the cinemark (which was the only reason that mall mattered) and a fight turned into a shooting. Hurting a innocent bystander. Children were present and was very traumatizing.
Avoid this mall with all cost. Just drive to greenbrier or lynnhaven. This mall doesnt have much time left.
If I could give it negative stars I would.