John T.
Yelp
I'd avoided coming here for years. People had told me this was more an an outlet mall rather than a traditional mall. Plus, I live in Nashville so I had plenty of closer options if the spirit to mall walk came over me. So, despite being at nearby businesses, I never darkened the door at CoolSprings.
But then the stars aligned where I needed to come to this mall (couldn't find what I needed in Nashville) and I had a day off (so traveling south during non-peak hours was something I could do comfortably) so to CoolSprings I went. First thing I noticed: parking was/is a breeze. Compared to the act of war that is parking at Green Hills, this was a restful, fantastic experience. Plenty of spaces. D@mn near every space seemed to be within a few strides of a door. This is what we need when it comes to malls. Middle Tennessee (for better or worse) is a driving metro. Thus, parking is a real concern. Get it together or face angry customers.
Once parked, I made my way inside. A few things: the mall map was front and center. Me likey. Malls can be mini cities. You need to know where you're going and being able to navigate from the beginning is extremely important. Secondly, plenty of seating. As has been the case for millennia, spouses/children have been dragged to malls against their will. Having clean, new places to post up while they wait for the cool reward of an Orange Julius is a must. Next: the smell. The smell of the mall reminded me of Mall St. Matthews back home in Louisville, KY. The malls aren't managed/owned by the same group but the smell took me back to my pre-teen mallrat years. I wasn't mad at it. The lighting's good, the layout is easily navigable and the stores are good for all your big box shopping needs. Plus there was a surprising amount of eye candy. The demographic is a bit different from Green Hills but that's to be expected. The malls are in pretty different locations.
Malls are malls are malls... unless they aren't. There's nothing about CoolSprings that's going to upset your typical mall expectations and there's enough care going on that you're, likely, to have a neutral to good experience. When it comes to a crush of humanity, that's a win.