The Oviedo Mall is a local mall that has been around since the 90s. Despite its longevity, it never gained popularity like the bigger malls in Orlando. Over the years, Oviedo Mall has changed drastically, getting more and more creative as attracting visitors got even harder. Most of the known stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Justice, Macy’s, and Sears, have all left over the past decade. Now, the mall is left with many small businesses that people are not always attracted to since they have never heard of them before. Some popular remaining stores are Dillard’s, GameStop, B. Dalton, Loft Outlet, and Bath and Body Works.
With so many smaller stores that don’t gain attention, the Oviedo Mall attempts to add different things other malls do not have in an attempt to stay relevant. The Regal Movie Theater has always been a hit as they always have their biggest deals on Tuesdays. The Oviedo Mall District Eat & Play is a large arcade filled with games and fun escape rooms to enhance any birthday party. The Oviedo Brewing Company, which is the first brewery in Oviedo, opened in recent years as a new food addition that has delicious food such as pizzas, sandwiches, wings, and more. O2B Kids is a place where parents can bring their kids to preschool, classes, different programs, summer camps, and other offerings. Kids love O2B because they have a lot of fun activities to do and fun toys to play with too. One of the Oviedo Mall’s most recent and popular additions is the D’Amico & Sons Italian Market & Bakery which offers a wide variety of different Italian foods, snacks, cooking items, and cookies, pastries, coffee, gelato, and cake, in the bakery to fill anyone’s taste buds with joy.
The Oviedo Mall also hosts activities and events for different times of the year. Following the calendar, in February Dreamland Amusements brings their carnival to Oviedo Mall. This year the carnival set up rides and games from February 1 to the 11. Starting off the Holidays, During Easter children can take pictures with the Easter Bunny. When children are off in the summer, O2B offers a lot of different activities and summer camps to keep them busy. Around Halloween time, a Spirit Halloween store opens for any type of costume, accessory, makeup, animatronic, or decoration any customer could want. Also around Halloween, there is a haunted interactive drive-thru called the Scream n’ Stream which is a 25 minute long drive-thru where guests will defend themselves from different monsters based on that year’s theme with laser guns before having to escape the monsters by delivering a kill switch device. Not on the calendar, there are spontaneous shops set up in the parking lot in a layout similar to farmer’s markets.
Locals think that the Oviedo Mall won’t make it, but that is definitely not true. Of course, over the years the mall has endured some struggles, but they try their hardest to keep adding new and exciting things. By adding activities, stores, and attractions that other malls don’t have, this mall stands out, and when a mall is close to shutting down, that is one of the best solutions there is. The Oviedo Mall will not go down without a fight.
