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Saturday, October 19, 2013

Mall contracts forcing Pretzelmaker to close at Northtown Mall.

It is very normal for a mall to have contracts with it's food court tenants to be sure that the mall doesn't have to much competition of one type of restaurant. Usually 1 pizza restaurant , 1 sandwich business and so on. But for some time now Spokane's Northtown Mall has been home to 2 pretzel businesses. And now Mall management is planning to do something about it.

Northtown Mall and the mall's owners have decided to make Wetzel's Pretzel's , the chain pretzel business located on the 2nd floor in the food court itself the exclusive pretzel vendor for Northtown. This move forces out Pretzelmaker which is a family owned franchise location that has been a part of the North Spokane shopping center for over 7 years.

If no changes are made the Northtown Mall Pretzelmaker store will close on Nov. 15th with no other location to open in. Because this would be a closure and not a re-location it is estimated that between 10-20 jobs would be lost.

It is important to note that there is always to sides to every story and I , as a blogger for the public have the responsibility to report both sides without bias. I inquired with Northtown for a comment on this issue and see if there was more to this then what I knew . The Mall did not make any direct reply about exclusivity deal just said they we're sad to see Pretzelmaker leave and hope that everyone will give the same welcome and embrace to Wetzel's Pretzel's.

A group is active in keeping the Northtown Pretzelmaker store open , this group has posted multiple times on Northtown's Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/NorthTownMall ) trying to discourage the mall from forcing out the pretzel business. There has even been a new Facebook page created called " Don't get rid of Pretzelmaker - Northtown " that page is easy to find at-

https://www.facebook.com/pretzelmakerlovers2013

Because Northtown Mall is the only place in Spokane with a location of the Pretzelmaker chain , this closure would mean Pretzelmaker leaving Spokane completely. However the chain would not leave the Inland Northwest completely. Pretzelmaker also operates a location in Coeur d' Alene at Silver Lake Mall.

There is no word on any like problems at the Silver Lake Mall Pretzelmaker store. That location is located at the center court of the Coeur d' Alene mall directly next to Claire's. Silver Lake Mall is located on the north side of Coeur d' Alene near the corner of US 95 and Hanley Ave.

For more info on the Pretzelmaker visit-

http://www.pretzelmaker.com/

To support the movement to save the Pretzelmaker at Spokane's Northtown Mall visit-

https://www.facebook.com/pretzelmakerlovers2013

For more info on Northtown Mall visit-

www.northtownmall.com