CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — La Palmera Mall is preparing for a return to normal, starting Thursday night with the first of six free, monthly events at the mall.
“Everyone’s trying to go out and have some semblance of normal again, so it’s time to get out and shop, dine, and play here at La Palmera,” said Amanda Sanchez, the general manager of La Palmera. “We’re excited to be able to welcome everybody back out.”
On Tuesday, June 1, La Palmera will return to normal business hours, open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Thursday’s event start at 6:00 p.m., and lasts until 8:00 p.m. The event is “Pachanga,” and will feature a Grito contest, live mariachis, cerveza samples from L&F Distributing, and Corpus Christi Lotería.
Mall guests are excited for the return to normal at the mall, like Thomas Ditmars, who visits the mall every day to walk around.
“I think it’s great. I think having the events is great, we enjoy that. A little longer hours here, they’re open a little earlier now, so that helps us out on the walking, and it’s good to see people’s faces again,” he said.
Other guests, like Paul Wilkins, don’t visit the mall quite as often, but are still excited for the mall to transition back to normal.
“Things are starting to feel normal. COVID is still out there, but everybody is starting to get back out there, people are getting vaccinated, so things are starting to get back to normal in a sense,” Wilkins said.
“I was very excited, it was really hard, and I think a difficult experience when everything was closing down, and there weren’t a lot of things to do. Now that it’s open, I’m really excited that we’re able to shop and do whatever we want,” said Samantha Adames, another mall patron who is ready for the return to normal.
Each month, the mall will host a free event with a different theme. The schedule for this events is as follows:
June: Totally Rad Movie Night. Saturday, June 26, 6:30 to 10 p.m.
July: Música and Movie. Saturday, July 10, 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.
August: Back to School Scavenger Hunt. Thursday, Aug. 5, 10 a.m.
September: Oktoberfest Unter den Palmen. Thursday, Sept. 16, 6 to 8 p.m.
October: Dia de los Muertos Fiesta. Thursday, Oct. 21, 6 to 8 p.m.
“This is just great for us, we’re very excited to be able to host something like this, it means a lot to us and to all of our retailers who were so impacted, all the employees of all those retailers. So, we’re excited to be able to do something to kick start that again,” Sanchez said.
For more information on the events, visit the La Palmera website.