Make Way for the Mall Walkers

By Anastasia Toufexis

Sweat-suited and sneaker-footed, with pedometers clipped firmly at waists, they appear, sometimes before dawn, and slip quietly through the shopping-mall entrance with a wave to smiling guards. Early-bird bargain hunters? Well, no. These are not sales stalkers but a growing breed of fitness faddists, the mall walkers.

Walking is the preferred exercise of more and more Americans, especially the aging and ailing. "It's aerobic, it burns calories, and it's less intense than jogging," says Gary Yanker, editor of Walking World. "More people are regular walkers than runners, about 55 million compared with 34 million." Malls--conveniently located, climate controlled and security patrolled--have rapidly emerged as the ideal site for stress-free strutting. "We don't have to bother with dogs, traffic problems, rocks, hills or pollen," exults Helen Gulledge, 69. An arthritis sufferer, she and her husband Luther, 75, who has heart trouble, tick off up to two miles daily at the Haywood Mall in Greenville, S.C. Overweight adults, pregnant women and mothers with infants are also now walking the malls.

Community-relations-minded shopping centers have begun to court strollers. ) Many open their doors before regular store hours; some are measuring off courses and issuing walkers' maps. The quarter-mile circuit at the Northwoods mall in Peoria, Ill., even includes half a dozen stations for stretching and light calisthenics. The Ward Parkway Shopping Center in Kansas City, a pioneer that has been welcoming mall walkers for 25 years, actually opens for three hours on holidays just to accommodate its habitual hikers.

With local hospitals or health organizations, the malls are also establishing walkers' clubs that offer T shirts and buttons, merchant discounts, occasional free breakfasts and, most important, mileage logs for members. Walkers keep as close tabs on their totals as runners do of their times. "I'm on my 600th mile," boasts Ruth Kaufman, 60, a member of the Galleria Mall GoGetters in Glendale, Calif. "I could have gone to San Francisco by now." Observes Pat Garmer of Peoria's Northwoods center: "Let me tell you, you don't get in their way."

Tenacious trekkers do not even glance at window displays. "Looking distracts you," contends Hazel Yarbrough, 74, who clips along for five to seven miles a day at a zippy 140 steps a minute in the Georgia Square Mall in Athens. Regular strollers look out for mischief, pick up refuse and add a general air of bonhomie to the malls as they exchange pleasantries in passing. Indeed, the loose camaraderie has proved a welcome dividend for many of the walkers. Maude Harris, 74, used to laugh at the Georgia Square strollers. "It looked pretty silly to me," she recalls. But needing to exercise and feeling lonesome, she gave walking a try, and now does 1 1/2 miles a day with newfound friends. "We walk, and we tell jokes and have a good clean fellowship," she says happily. "I enjoy the company." "And we would miss you if you weren't here," responds Charles Bridges, 67, gallantly.

With reporting by Jim Byers/Glendale and Don Winbush/Athens