Three Rivers Mall

This mall has improved since I got here in December 2013. With the opening of the Regal Cinemas it gets more shoppers and now has a new Sportsman store. Come to the Mall! No I don’t work there.

Not much to say. This mall has nothing and I’m surprised it’s still in business. The stores that are in this mall need to go out on there own.

I’ve done my time in this mall. I’ve worked in many locations, including the former GameStop, Borders Express, Consumer Opinion Services, Leather Source, Lighthouse Gifts, and was the manager of a kiosk called «The Charmed Source» in 2004.
I have watched the slow and steady decline of this mall for many years, from the day I first set foot in it in 1992, to present day. I’ve watched business after business become the prey of corporate rent stranglehold.
There has been many good business come and go through this mall, and today it is merely a shell of what it used to be. For the traveler who may stop here to pass by, there is literally nothing. Two of the four original anchor stores still exist, Macy’s and JC Penney, but they are barely holding down the fort these days. The Kelso public library and Chuck E. Cheese take up a good chunk of the North end of the mall, and it’s still peppered with a combination of local and corporate businesses such as GNC, Bath and Body Works, Claires, Maurices, and Big 5 Sporting Goods in the corporate column, and Lighthouse Gifts, Cutting Edge, Sheri’s Fashions and Island Sun Tanning in the local column.
It’s food court has ONE location, the exceptionally wonderful Cool Scoops.
I’ve joked with my friends on many occasions about how one day I am going to pull up to the Three Rivers Mall and I fully expect to see the word «Titanic» painted on the side of it. It deserves a far kinder fate than this, and hopefully with the addition of the new 12 screen Regal Cinema they are planning, and the Food Court Wars Season 2 episodes to be filmed there, hopefully this can breathe some new life into the last remaining mall in this local area.

Stopped in here on a follow up returning visit from the Oregon and Washington coast (it was «black Friday» after all). The mall has covered over the Sears anchor entrance with Santa’s village, but otherwise my review is very much the same. Regal Cinemas is supposed to open a 12-​screen theater where Sears was located, but no demolition has started — probably waiting for post-​Christmas shopping.
The tenant mix here is still awful — mostly retailers that teenagers can shop (Claire’s, maurices, Bath and Body Works). The mall has a new owner — Rouse. Hopefully they can do more with it than GGP did (GGP bought John Price Realty). This mall opened in 1986.
The food court here is now down to one operation. The remainder is walled off. If you need to dine and are in the area, there’s a Chuck-​e-​Cheese on mall property as well as several adjacent table-​service restaurants.

I’m rating the Three Rivers Mall a 2 star because I think 1 star might be overly harsh… so I’ll say a 1 and a half star and ease my conscience. I’ve visited this mall about every other year since 1998 and vividly recall days of my youth when they had a K*B Toy Store, Waldenbooks, and even a Camelot (fye) store. I’d always stop here on my treks to Long Beach or Seaside and take a breather and maybe get lunch or do a little pre-​game shopping. I haven’t been to this mall since 2008 and I just returned today and it’s just one of those WOW moments. Like, what happened? You walk in the nearly deserted mall and you can feel emptiness, feel a sense of retail death in the air. That feeling like YOU, a customer with cash and credit cards wanting to buy something, DO NOT BELONG. Every other store front is vacant. And aside a few anchors like Macy’s and JCPenney’s (Sears is gone… RIP), and a GNC and a Bath and Body Works, the rest is pretty much small town strip mall second rate shopping. If it’s any indicator there was only one venue left in the food court. It’s odd because the mall is clean, well kept, and looks and smells like a new facility. But the place itself feels like she’s waiting for the hammer to fall.
I hate seeing that. I’ve seen it before with the Pavilion Mall in Southcenter when I was a kid, and the sense that a mall is empty and being there feels out of place… well, that’s a hard road to recover from. Hopefully they can turn it around but who knows. A sign did promise a new Regal Cinema was coming soon so maybe the time to shine is a comin’? But for the time being, I’d just keep driving.

Probably will avoid this place in the future. Down to one food court restaurant. Place is slowly dying. Kinda sad

Not the best mall I’ve ever been to but it’s good considering it’s practically a mall out in a pretty rual area. They don’t have your typical big corp fast food booths but I like how they have local ran businesses that make up the food court. They have some stores that are standard in every mall like bath and body works, and I don’t know what else. Nothing exciting, seeing that Portland is just another hour away where Lloyd Center houses tax free merch!
I just love that they hold the Cowlitz Gamers for Kids each year for the last two years!

It’s much bigger inside than it looks from the outside. Small food court but we enjoyed our meal at La Herencia. They even made me fresh pico de gaio! Very frendly staff and even asked how my meal was.

This place is a disaster. The sears store was having a going out of business sale. That is a first sign that a mall is going down hill. I didn’t even bother to get out my car, I promptly got back on the freeway.

Many of the shopping malls of the United States have seen their hay-​day. The explosion in popularity and convenience of big box stores and the Internet has made the once thriving mall a fading memory. The retail industry is a tough battlefield when it comes to survival and sadly The Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, WA has many fatal casualties and walking wounded.
Macys (see my Clearance Centre review), Sears, & JCPenny (see my review) as anchors seem to draw in the most folks to the mall, but the Target that is adjacent to the property draws the most shoppers it seems. Chuck E. Cheese is a nice place if you want to subject yourself to loud gaming machines patronized by screaming children, dripping in sweat as they run through a literal vomitorium of plastic tubes. Sub-​par food and a giant rodent just round out the ticket o’ fun and frolic.
On a positive note, we were impressed by the Kelso Community Library which is located within the mall confines. Very nice staff greeted us and were helpful. Decent selection of books and media along with computer access makes this a small glimmer of hope in the ever-​shrinking desolate mall.
A few of the more popular stores like Big 5 Sporting Goods, Sears, Payless Shoes & Claire’s may be worth the visit for some, but it seems like it would be a better use of time to drive down the I-​5 to a more populated area and seek a mall that offers more bang for the buck. The apathy of the property management is very palpable here. If the power is still running on the life support of this place after this next holiday season, the plug should really be pulled.
The food court ranged from dismal to down right frightening. The employees at Cool Scoops, The Cookie Place, & La Herencia made no attempt to greet us as we walked by looking over the menus. A simple «hello» or a sample could possibly generate a sale. Blank stares into space and playing on your smart phone is, errr… well, simply… not so smart.
Does Kelso NOT HAVE an environmental health department? If it does, then how does SHEEMA’s exist in the food court? The mother and children stood in the food prep area barefoot doing school work and playing on their cell phones only briefly making eye contact with us. The entire area looked very unclean and confused with picture menus depicting Asian style cuisine, but a menu featuring burgers and corn dogs? Maybe go with your heritage and offer some East Indian Cuisine? Then again, considering the cleanliness of your area makes a food vendor using a yak cart in Bangladesh look like a more viable option, maybe not.
A few other things stood out from our visit to Three Rivers Mall. How many nail salons does one location need? What is the marketing strategy behind Lighthouse Gifts? It’s stock is a mix of cheap dollar store trinkets, swap meet caliber items, mixed with surplus from the old Spencer’s Gifts. Just a bizarre selection. The poor lad working there didn’t make a sound as we wandered around. If it wasn’t for his incessant typing on his smartphone, I would have been obliged to check for a pulse.
So let’s review the Three Rivers Mall, shall we?
Pros: It is air-​conditioned, Kelso Library, JCPenny, Payless Shoes, Chuck E. Cheese contains some of the rug-​rat population and keeps them out of places that we dine and shop., Awesome «State Trooper-​esque» Security Guard Uniforms are always good for a laugh
Cons: No shade trees in parking lot, Depressing Atmosphere, Inattentive & Rude Employees, Better Deals Elsewhere

Rented tuxes at Mr. Formal for a wedding party. We did six total. Looked like any tux rentals that have been hemmed numerously. No big deal. Had fun at the wedding and returned the tuxes on time. 2 weeks later, 4 of the 6 of us get calls saying that there was damage to our tuxes and that we would be charged. I own 1 tux and about 15 suits. I have never damaged a suit and my suits arent even near the thickness of the ones we rented. The bottom line… SHADY! Dont rent from Mr. FORMAL unless you want to get SCAMMED.