Erica Farthing reports that for the next 30 days, all units not sold at that recent pin-in-balloon auction will be for sale at auction prices.

The Globe reports units at the Natick Mall condo complex will be going to auction soon - with starting prices as much as 70% off - as its bankrupt owner tries to raise cash.

The Herald reports the company that built the fancy-shmancy condos at the mall wants the $12.6 million it says the now bankrupt mall owner still owes it.

General Growth Properties, which operates Faneuil Hall Marketplace and owns the Natick Mall Collection, filed for bankruptcy today.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the Israelis who seem to staff almost all the mall carts selling Dead Sea salt treatments, head massagers and remote-control helicopters and briefly discusses our own little mall:

After fielding complaints about overly aggressive vendors, some mall operators have taken measures. The Natick Collection, a mall in Natick, Mass., forbids cart salespeople from calling out to customers as they pass.

Yvonne Abraham nailed it in her column today about the emptiness that the Uptown Wing of the Natick Mall has become.

The kidlet and I roamed its sparsely populated walkways today and man, was it empty (don't worry, we weren't there to either smirk or check up on Abraham; we happened to be out that way anyway so we stopped in at Sears to get something truly boring and then decided to walk around). Clerks stared out at us bored as can be, when they weren't too busy chatting with each other or, as in the case above, abandoning all pretense that any customers would come in and so just surfing the Web. Even Neiman-Marcus was pretty much empty, which is probably just as well, since the kidlet spent most of our short stay there loudly complaining about how expensive everything was (I admit I snorted out loud when I saw a Juicy infant romper, although I couldn't decide which was worse: The sexualization of infants or the fact that the thing was going for $73).

However, I'm betting Abraham stayed on the second floor, because we did find one retail bright spot on the first floor: The Apple Store, which, while not packed wall to wall, seemed reasonably busy.

Meanwhile, the Ghetto Wing, i.e., the original mall, seemed to have a decent number of people walking around. We actually had to spend 30 seconds scouting out a table at the food court (I recommend the Indian food). I have no doubt people are buying less there, as well, but it still felt like a functioning place of commerce rather than a Potemkin Mall.

Operator of Faneuil Hall Marketplace, owner of Natick Mall on verge of bankruptcy.

Oh, come on, you didn't think I was going to break down and use that new name, did you? In any case: naked butt at the mall tomorrow, according to the MetroWest Daily News, which thoughtfully brackets its press release for the store in question with this sobering warning:

Under the state's open and gross lewdness law, the exposure of the buttocks can be a felony. Much hinges on whether the bottom-baring produces alarm, according to Natick Police Lt. Brian Grassey.

So I guess booty shaking is straight out, because you know how alarming that can be. Still, Lt. Grassey might wish to bone up on Commonwealth vs. Ora, in which the Supreme Judicial Court ruled earlier this year that you can dance naked in the middle of even Harvard Square at noon - as long as you provide adequate advance warning to the easily alarmed.

Things aren't going quite as planned at the uptown section of the Natick Mall (as opposed to the original ghetto wing, the one where you can still buy black-light art), the Globe reports, quoting analysts who blame New Englanders:

... While there is ample wealth in this region - the average household income is about $110,000, nearly double the state average - there is still a culture of buttoned-up Yankees who aren't accustomed to indulgent spending on luxury goods, according to Madison Riley, a retail analyst at Kurt Salmon Associates in Boston. ... "There has been a culture in the Boston area of that Yankee thriftiness, even when one had money," Riley said. "That's changed in the city of Boston but the mentality still resides in the suburbs, and that is impacting Natick." ...

Pahkcah02 reads yesterday's Globe story about the Nouvelle rich holing up in their condo fortress at the Natick Mall so they don't have to worry about mixing with ghastly poor people and she yearns for the days of Old Money, because at least the Brahmins just shut up about their money and actually deigned to acknowledge that their lessers existed:

... I'm pretty proud of the fact that I live in one of the few area of the country that wasn't bombarded with exclusive gated communities during the recent housing boom. While I'm certainly in no position to tell other people how to spend their cash, opting out of a society that in your mind doesn't measure up shouldn't even be on the table. The Nouvelle at Natick is obviously hitting a specific demographic and for a diverse, inclusive community like Natick that should be a very alarming thing. A lot of these folks would be better off in a place where money truly does buy happiness (such as Miami) than holing up in over-priced condo bunkers that this area certainly doesn't need.

Earlier:
It's refreshing to see the Globe finally tackling the issues of everyday people.