A Nebraska outlet mall wanted to be a 'laboratory' in the culture war over reopening businesses amid the pandemic, but it became a meme instead

• Nebraska Crossing, an outdoor mall located in Gretna, NE, opened again to the public on May 1, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• It wanted to be a "case study" in the culture war over business closures that have been encouraged and forced country-wide.
• The mall's official Twitter account, @nexoutlets, appeared to block reporters and other Twitter users, including State Senator Megan Hunt, on Twitter.
• Now, the incident has become a meme on social media, albeit one rooted in concerns about implications of the mall's reopening.
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In mid-April, Nebraska Crossing had grand aspirations to be one of the first malls to reopen in North America after country-wide closures amid the coronavirus pandemic, staking out a firm position in the culture war over quarantine length and measures.

But what originally started as a plan to position the mall as a symbolic leader in the controversial movement to quickly reopen businesses has spiraled into a meme after a messy set of events, making the mall famous for reasons other than the mall intended.

Nebraska Crossing intended to be a "case study" for the reopening of businesses in the United States

Nebraska Crossing is an outdoor outlet mall in Gretna, NE, just a short drive outside of the city's biggest city, Omaha. While it never formally closed during the pandemic — Nebraska was one of few states that never instituted a formal stay-at-home order — the vast majority of the mall's stores closed to customers.

Rod Yates, the owner of Nebraska Crossing, said on April 14 that he wanted to reopen the mall with a "soft opening" on April 24, prior to the end of Governor Pete Ricketts' request that Nebraskans avoid non-essential errands and limit social gatherings through April 30.

The mall framed itself as a test case of sorts for retail businesses reopening amid the pandemic, with Yates telling The New York Times that Nebraska's relatively low number of COVID-19 cases and related deaths in mid-April were ideal for the mall to be "a case study, a laboratory" for the resurrection of businesses in the United States.

At the time, Yates told the Omaha World-Herald that it was preparing a variety of safety precautions including temperature checks and shield guards to be installed at registers. An update sent to general managers said that the mall was in close communication with Governor Pete Ricketts. Ricketts did not ask the mall to delay its reopening; per the Omaha World-Herald and state records, owner Rod Yates and Nebraska crossing have donated nearly $100,000 to Ricketts since 2014.

The mall immediately faced criticism for the decision to attempt to reopen.

The president of the Nebraska Hospital Association called the move "irresponsible" and "in direct contradiction of public health guidelines" in a statement published in the Omaha World-Herald on April 15. At the time of the announcement, general managers for stores in the mall told the World-Herald that they were nervous about the reopen, with one saying, "I'm not willing to be a test subject for you guys, and neither are my employees." There was even a Change.org petition launched that called for the mall to delay its reopening.

The reopening process itself was plagued by mixed messaging to retailers and shifting plans. While the soft open was initially slated for April 18, it was later pushed back to April 24. The mall later clarified that the soft open was only for store employees, although one store employee told the World-Herald that it had been clear that the soft open was intended to be open to the public.

When the mall finally opened on May 1, the process was haphazard, with the Omaha World-Herald's Alia Conley reporting that there was no one seated at a checkpoint at one of the mall's entrances (Yates said that the reporter had arrived before the opening and during set-up). Conley also reported that Johanna Boston, the mall's chief strategy officer, ordered a World-Herald reporter, a photographer, and another member of the press to leave the mall, saying that it was private property.

Despite the fact that Nebraska recently crossed the threshold of 6,000 COVID-19 cases and is currently expected to experience peak hospitalizations on May 13, the Governor began to loosen restrictions for the state on May 4.

Nebraska Crossing blocked members of the press and other Twitter users before removing its account.

Omaha World-Herald staff writer Alia Conely, who has been covering Nebraska Crossing's reopening, tweeted on May 3 that she noticed that she had been blocked by the mall's official account after writing an account of the mall's reopening on May 1.

—Alia Conley (@aliaconleyOWH) May 3, 2020

Fellow Omaha World-Herald staff writer Aaron Sanderford also tweeted on May 3 that he had been blocked. Other Twitter users, including Precious McKesson, the finance director for the Nebraska Democratic Party, and Seeing Red Nebraska, an organization that provides "commentary on Nebraska politics from the left," tweeted about being blocked by the Nebraska Crossing account as well.

"We have received targeted hostile comments directed to Nebraska Crossing from select users on Twitter, including the press," a representative from Nebraska Crossing said over email. "We removed their ability to tag our business as their comments were based on opinion, or random tweets, not factual reporting. Twitter was rarely a platform that we utilized in the shopping center industry, so we decided to remove our account."

While Conley had regularly been covering Nebraska Crossing (and was one of the reporters ordered off the property on May 1), there is no visible, public instance of her tagging the now-defunct @nexoutlets prior to when she tweeted about being blocked by the account. Fellow staff writer Aaron Sanderford's account shows that his most recent direct engagement with the @nexoutlets handle prior to tweeting about getting blocked was on May 19, 2019, when he tweeted a photo of a Nike shoe presumably bought at the outlet mall (Sanderford did not directly tag the @nexoutlets account in that tweet, but it appears as a reply to the account).

State Senator Megan Hunt, who represents District 8 in Nebraska, also tweeted about getting blocked on May 3. Hunt told Insider that she expected them to block her and wasn't surprised when they did. Earlier in the day, she had tweeted about the account blocking reporters.

—Senator Megan Hunt (@NebraskaMegan) May 3, 2020

Less than an hour after Hunt tweeted that she had been blocked, she tweeted that Nebraska Crossing had deleted its account. Soon after, she tweeted that Nebraska Crossing's chief strategy officer, Johanna Boston, had deleted her account as well. (The Twitter handle linked to Boston's LinkedIn profile leads to an account that appears to have been deleted).

Nebraska Crossing's social media behavior has now turned into a meme online.

The deactivation of the Nebraska Crossing account and the series of reported blocks came during an ongoing wave of social media discussion about the reopen, and later, the mall asking reporters to leave the property and the following social media behavior.

—Eric (@tornadosoul7) May 3, 2020

— ———✨ (@Siriusly_Cullen) May 4, 2020

There are also a number of Nebraska Crossing parody accounts that have sprung up since the account's deactivation. There's @nexoutlets1, whose display name is "Nebraska's Crossings Outlets," or @nexoutIets, which uses a capital "I" as opposed to a lowercase "l" to mimic the mall's original handle. Another self-identified parody account wrote in its description, "Overly abrasive, bad outlet mall. Media not allowed."

"Someone has created a false profile, with our former Twitter handle, impersonating Nebraska Crossing — utilizing all of our trademarked collateral including websites, photographs, etc, and passing off their false profile as our business. This is being investigated by Twitter," Nebraska Crossing told Insider.

Now, Nebraska Crossing's social media conduct — and its apparent reluctance to let reporters be present for its opening — are feeding discussions about the mall on platforms like Twitter and Reddit. While certain elements of the discourse, like the parody accounts or people lamenting the fact that they never had the chance to get blocked, veer into meme territory, the discussion is still rooted in real safety concerns about the reopening.

"I think the impression you give to others through social media can undermine or support any goal you have. [Nebraska Crossing] could have used this platform to convey that they were taking precautions, being careful, and putting public health and the safety of staff and customers first," Senator Hunt told Insider. "Instead, they did something really petty and immature that reflects the concern many people had about the opening — that it was a political and greedy decision, not a decision based on the interest of public health."

Ultimately, Nebraska Crossing blocking reporters from its property and social media seems to be jeopardizing the mall's credibility as a case study for businesses attempting to reopen amid the pandemic. "You can't be a case study if you're not transparent about how things are actually going," one Twitter user wrote.

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