Bellevue Square in Bellevue, WA

We went around 7:30 PM on a Friday evening and we still encountered such inconsiderate, rude and stupid people everywhere!!! It's like nobody cares if you're front of them or not. Won't say, "Excuse me," or try to move appropriately. Most of the stores were open and had customers going in and out. Some had special deals and sales going on, which was nice. The mall ain't what is used to be, though. Parking is a mess, layout of the building can be confusing at times when looking for the Sky Bridge and trying to go from one side to the other where the hotels are. Inventory and selection of goods have gone downhill a bit, though. Prices have of course gone up.

I walked around Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square yesterday with a companion. Wow, this place is THRIVING! I haven't walked around any mall in about 5 years now, and I haven't walked around Bell Square specifically in almost 20 years! My ex-boyfriend's parents live in Clyde Hill, and his Mom (amazing woman) and I used to shop at Bell Square together way back then. From what I remember, this place hasn't changed much in almost 20 years. It's bright and expansive, with lovely flooring, hundreds of stores containing almost anything that you could possibly think of to buy, and many comfortable and not-so-comfortable seating areas throughout the mall (which is SO nice, because this mall is enormous and we did lots of walking, so it was good to sit down from time to time!). I strongly preferred sitting down in the comfy, soft arm chairs that were placed in the middle of some of the wide mall walk ways, but I only took photos of 2 of the hard bench seating areas. But there are super comfy chairs (that I sat in occasionally to rest for a few minutes) throughout this mall, which I was very happy about. There is also a lot of lovely greenery - trees and plants - near a lot of the seating areas. Very nice. The Elevator near the Beecher's Handmade Cheese Store is awesome. I love those see-through glass elevators. I sat and watched it go up and down for a few minutes. My initial reason for going to Bell Square yesterday after so many years is that my nephew just turned 21 (wow, time flies) and I had been texting with my Sister's first husband's third wife, Sharon (I like her more than I like my Sister, haha... another amazing woman) and I was asking Sharon what she thought I should get for my nephew, Gavin. Sharon texted that Gavin is hard to buy for and that they usually just buy him a gift certificate for The Lego Store or GameStop, since he enjoys gaming and building with Legos. Gavin is in the US Air Force, and he isn't stationed locally, but he enjoys building with Legos during his visits home. So, after a quick search for Lego Stores on the East Side, I saw that the Bellevue Square Lego Store was the closest one to where I live. I bought Gavin a $300 Gift Certificate to the Lego Store for his Birthday. The Lego Store employees were super friendly, welcoming, chatty (but not too chatty) and helpful, as were the employees at most of the other stores that I went to in this mall. I also enjoy building with Legos from time to time. I bought myself some Legos, too. Since it's really not a true Artemis yelp review without a completely irrelevant tangent, I would like to let all of you out there in yelp land know that I built a BEAUTIFUL Lego church a few years ago (a half MOC - My Own Creation - and a half Harry Potter Lego set that was never intended to be used to build a Lego Church, haha) but my cat destroyed the church. I rebuilt it, but then the movers destroyed it, and thus far it has remained in ruins. I decided that it would be fun to have an afternoon of retail therapy, and it was uplifting and relaxing for me to walk around this mall. Many of the mall employees were wearing masks (the Lego Store employees were wearing the most adorable bright yellow masks, to match the bright yellow store), but other than that, you'd never know that this mall had weathered a global pandemic at all. We visited this mall on a Thursday afternoon, and it was super busy. I would guess that there were thousands of customers in this mall yesterday, and the parking lot near the Lego Store (also near the Nordstrom, which is a larger landmark) was almost completely full. In this mall's parking lot, we mostly saw Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, etc. I'm not a car person (I don't really care what I or anyone else drives), and I actually hate driving, I strongly prefer to be driven. With many of my friends, if they are willing to drive me to wherever we are going, I will happily treat them to the experience. As long as the car gets from point A to point B, that is all that I really want for it to do. (I do currently own an Audi, but it's a long story as to why, and most of my cars throughout my life have not been in the aforementioned league.) But, even I couldn't help but notice some of these cars. My favorite was the glistening white (it looked like it had been washed about 5 minutes before driving into the lot) Porsche Turbo. I don't think I've ever seen a pure white Porsche before. So pretty! Anyway, Bell Square was hopping yesterday, and I enjoyed walking around and shopping there for a few hours yesterday afternoon. We went to Lincoln Square too (Paper Source in Lincoln Square North, and Woods Coffee and the Container Store in Lincoln Square South), so I'll be reviewing Lincoln Square separately at some point. The stores I patronized are: The Lego Store (my reason for being there), Lush, Jamba, Fireworks, and Beecher's Handmade Cheese. I will most likely be reviewing each of these stores later.

I don't know if what I heard is true that it's the biggest mall in USA or Washington state. As it's definitely not big. It's a normal size mall. But super nice and clean. I love the fact there is security and police presence. Now days it's scary to be anywhere sadly. I have no complaints about anything about this mall at all. I live the stores, love the information desk as they are super sweet and helpful. The only thing I was sad was seeing MK closing. I am obsessed with MK for my everyday look. But they do have my other every day look which is Kate spade. So I am okay for now. Prices are normal like any other malls. They have good selection of stores so I guess it's a good place to shop for anyone from your family or even for gifts. I do like they celebrate different religious holidays but I am sad I don't see any Muslim holiday being celebrated when they have a lot of customers who are Muslims. Oh yeah if you aren't really desperate to go in the weekend don't go as it gets super crazy busy. For me I get overwhelmed from being in crowded places so I definitely get anxious when I am there in the weekend. The rest of the week it's busy but not that busy. Enjoy it :-) P.s try the gluten free Mac and cheese from the cafe in the lower floor a cross from the elevator as it's so so delicious

Hit the mall at 11:30 on a Sunday. Great time to go. Lots of parking close to the entrances, customer service at JCrew and Nordstrom were generous and helpful. Haven't been here in awhile and I had a great shopping experience. Found a lot of cool stuff in the second floor ladies departments. There's a new coffee place called Milk at Nordstrom which I loved.

Popmart employees were extremely weird and made my girlfriend & I feel very uncomfortable. They politely asked me and my girlfriend not to open the cabinets which we understood and apologized for, the employees continued to stare, consistently, as well as whispering to each other, creating an uneasy atmosphere in the store for us while browsing. At one point one of the employees medium height, blonde hair, tried to take a candid photo of us, which was extremely obvious and incredibly inappropriate. They were directly facing us with their phones pointed towards us. Made my girlfriend & I pretty upset as we casually often shop at this store and would like to continue so without feeling like we're being scrutinized. Popmart US, please educate your employees on proper customer service, respect and manners. Do not know if we will shop here again as it feels uncomfortable to know that Popmart US has this sort of virtue in their employees. Honestly such a disappointment as her & I really enjoyed shopping there, sad to say it feels unsafe now.