A new security measure at the Mall of America, instituted days after a fatal shooting there, is getting mixed reviews from customers.
The Bloomington shopping destination has established bag checkpoints at its building entrances and the entrances to some stores. That follows the Dec. 23 shooting inside the Nordstrom department store that killed 19-year-old Johntae Hudson and injured a bystander.
On New Year's Eve, shoppers filed through bag check stations at mall entrances, waiting for officials wearing lime-green shirts to sift through their belongings. Some waited to check shoppers outside of popular retail stores like Forever 21 and Nordstrom.
Other security officials walked through the mall and monitored shoppers while equipped with bulletproof vests and long guns.
For regulars like Lee and Judy Houck, the new security measures are no bother.
"I think the mall's a good place, and I've always felt safe here," Lee Houck said. "I think [the new security] is good ... It makes sense to have it here."
Logen Oliver, another visitor at the mall Saturday, said the checks did not seem very intensive.
"It's a basic check, so it does minimal checking for basic firearms. I mean, if you're actually concealing something [you're] probably going to get away with it," Oliver said. But, he added, "I think it's definitely a deterrence. Don't know if you can really do much more without wasting a lot of people's times."
