It's simple, Simon. (Really, it is.)

Dear Simon Malls:

Stopped in last night out at Independence Center for the first time in never mind how long.  I'm really not much of a mall person, but the convergence of Missouri's tax-free weekend and some new tenants you've recently acquired proved irresistible.  Anyway, after having helped one of those tenants meet its obligations to you-and after my finder having detected an open 802.11g network with an inviting SSID-I sauntered down to the food court, hoping to maybe catch up on the headlines, go through a few e-mails and knock off a blog post or two while maybe chomping down on a slice of pizza or finding out if Orange Julius was still as good as I remembered from my childhood.

Well, I didn't.  Guess why.

One would think I really wouldn't have to remind a company still so heavily involved in brick-and-mortar retailing that the customer experience is everything.  Once you get me in the door, it's incumbent upon you to make me want to come back.  Did you or anyone whose paycheck you're signing truly believe I'd ever be inclined to do so after having to battle interminably with your boneheaded clickthrough page and the programming error that kept it from delivering me to where I needed to go?

What's that?  You weren't aware of any issues with that?  Gee, that must mean you never bother with actually shopping in your properties to see for yourself what it's like for your customers.  Kind of reminiscent of the top executives of a Detroit automaker I don't need to name, who infamously intended to fly to Washington in their corporate jets to make their pitch to Congress for being bailed out by taxpayers-until someone pointed out that if they'd rather fly than drive there in their own products...well, you get the idea. 

Here's a hint:  Take a laptop down to Crown Center, find a comfy seat in the atrium, then boot up and hook into their Wi-Fi.  Try using it for a while.  Afterward, go back out to Independence Center and attempt the same thing.  Now you tell me:  Which would you rather do on a regular basis?