Mercer Mall: Foot Traffic and Square Footage
On a weekday morning in April, the sliding glass doors at Mercer Mall breathe open with a soft hiss.
The old Sears entrance faces the parking lot, patched and faded. Inside, it’s quiet enough to hear shoes on the tile.
JCPenney still holds its corner near main entrance 2. Belk is farther away, with downlights on, racks full, and cashiers in place.
The mall sits at 261 Mercer Mall Road in Bluefield, West Virginia. It’s been there since 1980.
Homart Development Company and Zamias Services, Inc. built it that year, opening with five anchors: Sears, Montgomery Ward, JCPenney, Stone & Thomas, and Leggett.
Today, only JCPenney remains from that original lineup.
Back then, 70 storefronts stretched across a single floor.
Ershig Properties took over management. Some spaces were small, tucked between anchors.
Others, like the food court and arcade wing, had bigger footprints.
Now, more than half of those units sit dark—vacant for a year or more.
Retailers like Hobby Lobby and Rural King moved into large vacated spaces.
Roses took over after Steve & Barry’s, which followed Carolina Pottery.
That chain came in after Ames shut down. And Ames had replaced Hills. The changes happened fast after the early 2000s.
Mercer Mall isn’t fully leased, but it hasn’t gone empty, either.
Foot traffic flows unevenly. Hobby Lobby draws an afternoon crowd, while Rural King pulls morning customers.
Some linger near Five Below, which opened in the old FYE location in November 2024.
Planet Fitness lights up early, even when the rest of the Mercer Mall stays quiet.
Gym members tap key fobs at the glass door near the main entrance.
Inside, treadmills line the window. People move in silence while music plays through ceiling speakers.
Some older names remain. Bath & Body Works has kept its corner stocked with scented candles and sales bins marked with red tags.
Books-A-Million still sells magazines and paperbacks.
Several storefronts nearby are dark. Their signage has been removed. Some display old tape outlines where letters once hung.
No new tenant announcements appear on the windows.
Floor tiles stay clean, but nothing moves behind the glass.
Great American Cookies, El Patron Mexican Restaurant, and Chick-fil-A hold steady in the food court.
For shoppers browsing things to do in Bluefield, West Virginia, the Mercer Mall still offers climate control and chain stores under one roof.
Anchor Turnover and Lease Rotations
Mercer Mall‘s floor plan hasn’t changed much since 1980, but the names on the doors have.
When it opened, the space was anchored by five national chains.
Each brand held its corner, pulling in steady crowds.
But by 1987, Montgomery Ward was out. Hills moved in, and it brought different foot traffic with it.
That space kept changing. Hills gave way to Ames in 1999, and Ames folded the following year.
In 2000, Carolina Pottery arrived but only lasted until 2006.
Steve & Barry’s picked up the square footage next.
They stayed for three years. When they left, Roses took the spot in 2009.
That space—once considered a power anchor—had changed hands five times in under twenty years.
Stone & Thomas was acquired by Elder-Beerman in 1998, but the Bluefield location never cut.
Belk stepped into the vacancy, turning it into a dedicated section for home goods and men’s apparel.
That second, Belk eventually shuttered, and by 2014, Hobby Lobby had moved in.
Sears stayed longer, but it didn’t survive the company-wide cuts.
In 2014, Mercer Mall lost it. The doors closed, the windows were covered, and for a while, the space sat dark.
Then Rural King took over. It opened on February 18, 2017, filling the gap with inventory that ranged from hardware to livestock feed.
By late 2024, the pattern hadn’t slowed. Five Below confirmed its move into the empty FYE unit.
The store opened in November, adding another national logo to the hallway.
Each switch brought new shelving, new signage, and sometimes fresh paint—but the square footage stayed the same.
The names changed. The walls didn’t.
Box Office History and Cinema Leases
The movie theater never sat inside the Mercer Mall itself.
It stood a few hundred feet away in its building, sharing the lot but not the roof.
For years, it showed first-run films under the Carmike Cinemas name.
That changed in 2016 when AMC took over the space.
They kept the screens, swapped the branding, and reissued the tickets as part of the AMC Classic chain.
But in February 2023, AMC pulled out. The closure came without much ceremony—just a posted sign and some locked doors.
For months, nothing happened. The glass stayed fogged, and movie posters from last winter lingered behind dusty glass.
The box office light didn’t come back on.
Then, in May, Golden Ticket Cinemas announced plans to reopen the theater.
Bluefield 8 would come back under their brand, the seats would be updated, and concessions would get new counters.
They had aimed for a fall 2024 launch, but that didn’t happen.
The box office stayed dark, and posters never changed.
By April 2025, a new date had replaced it: June 7. The plan includes a “Summer Vacation Movie Series” for families.
It’s supposed to launch on that same day—eight films, $1 tickets, starting with The Bad Guys.
But for now, the theater is closed. There is no staff on site, and the lot around it is mostly empty.
