Coach opened an outlet in Centralia

When I heard a few months ago that Coach was putting in an outlet store at the Centralia Outlet Mall, I was kinda excited. Hopeful, even.

When the time came for The Chronicle to write a preview story about Coach, something odd happened: Coach would not talk.

On Friday, the opening day, I wandered over to the Coach Outlet to see what all the mystery was about. There must be something awesome there, right?

Well, it was a store. With bags and stuff.

Don't get me wrong. I love Coach bags. I used to go to Coach stores in Portland, Ore., and marvel over the shoes and bags. I just didn't get the same feeling here.

After pausing a moment to take in the atmosphere of the store, it felt like people were lining up to buy $250 handbags in a cafeteria. The magic of the typical Coach store just was not present. 

What was there, however, was a crapload of customers, as evidenced by my photo above. I really hope that the addition of "higher-end" outlets to the Centralia Outlet Mall will give people outside of our community a reason to stop by and see us.