January 2016, Friday afternoon
Getting to Tanger Outlet Mall
This was my first visit to the new Tanger Outlet Mall since it opened last fall. It is easy to get to, and much closer than I realized - less than 5 miles away from a family member's home on the south side of Grand Rapids. The mall is located on the southwest corner of 84th St and US-131. The signs are easy to see from the expressway.
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| Nice sitting area with heat! Too bad it was rainy when we visited. |
Coupon books/Shopper services
I signed up to receive text promotions from Tanger Outlets a couple of weeks before my visit. I received a text message for a free coupon booklet, which I tried to redeem at Shopper Services. As I was looking for the text on my phone, the shopper agent said the text coupon was only good in the morning. She said that since it was after noon, the cost for the booklet would be $5. I did not recall reading that in my text; however, I did not continue to look for it, when I learned the free booklet I could get with my AAA membership was the same one.
My past experience with the free AAA booklet has not been very valuable, so I had signed up for text promotions with hopes of receiving something more valuable. I observed two other shoppers who came in for a coupon book, and then left without one after learning they cost $5. As usual, most of the coupons in the coupon book were only good if you were spending a large amount; most of them were discounts off purchases of $100 or more. I did find a couple of coupons good on purchases of $40, $60, and $75. Some of the coupons from nearby business were valuable enough to pay for the booklet. Depending on your interests, the $5 might be worth it, if you do not have AAA or a text for a free one.
The coupon book included two coupons good at Gun Lake Casino, which is just under 15 miles south of the shopping center. Sandhill Cafe (inside the casino) offered a BOGO free entree, and the casino coupon shown above for $10 in slot play did not have any restrictions. There were some typos in the coupon book I received. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see that the front of the coupons have an expiration date of December 2015, and the backs say December 2016. Other nearby business discounts that were not quite as valuable as the ones at Gun Lake Casino included: Residence Inn, Hyatt Place, Comfort Suites, Baymont Inn, Bay Point Inn, Terrace Grille, and 84th Street Pub and Grill.
Store Directory
The interactive store directory was not accurate online at the time of my visit. For instance, Wilson's Leather was listed for space 1055, and there is no space with that number on the map. I wondered if there would be a Wilson's Leather when we got there, and there was. It was located about where number 1058 was. Some of the other units were not labeled on the directory map, and I did not make note of which stores were in those spaces.
Atmosphere
The shopping atmosphere was great. Portions of the outside walkways were covered with a roof, which was nice since it was raining during our visit. We could feel the heat from the outside fire pit (photo at the top of this post), and the seats looked trendy. There were also seats with tables and electrical outlets in the walkway in front of Bath & Body Works.
Misc. and overall
The coupons I received after shopping were better than the ones in the coupon book! I received a coupon for 15% off my next purchase at Gap for filling out the online survey on my receipt. The booklet coupon, which I did not use, was 10% off $75 or more. When I checked out at Bath & Body Works, I received a 20% coupon good off my next purchase.
Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share this post!
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