About a third of the stores in the Logan Valley Mall in Altoona have been without power since late June, forcing store owners to keep their doors closed and leaving employees wondering when the lights will come back on.
A post on the Logan Valley Mall’s social media page on June 30 said that a faulty transformer caused localized electrical issues, affecting about a third of the mall.
Now, about ten stores are closed, including American Eagle, Qscapes, Torrid, Hot Topic, Claire's, Pink, Victoria's Secret, the Veteran's Supporting Veterans Group and Joseph Jacob Jeweler's. Each of the businesses has a paper note taped to the gates, apologizing about the outage.
Joseph Dardan, a salesperson with Qscapes, an aquatic landscaping company, said many of the fish in the store died.
“We did lose a significant amount of fish, some pretty rare fish," Dardan said, when reached by phone.
He said they were able to recover some fish that were still alive and move them to another location.
Employees at stores that still have power say they’re also missing out on revenue.
Hunter Kern, the manager of Journeys shoe store, said foot traffic is down significantly. He said he doesn't want to think about how much revenue they've lost so far because of the outage.
"It hurts my chest a little bit, but we can tell daily that we’ve been hit hard by what’s going on," Kern said.
The mall’s owners did not respond to questions about when the power will be restored, but several store managers say they’ve heard a new transformer has arrived and is supposed to be installed sometime soon.
Namdar Realty Group owns and operates the Logan Valley Mall, along with other properties throughout the nation, including the Nittany Mall in Centre County.
If you're an employee or store manager who's been affected by the prolonged power outage, we'd like to hear from you. Email radionews@psu.edu or call 814-863-9171.
