The Shops at White Oak Village

Make sure you are never part of an automobile collision anywhere on the grounds of this property, because within minutes you will be harassed by the rent-​a-​cops. My partner and I were hit by someone who didn’t stop at a stop sign (not our fault), and the bumper was knocked completely off of our vehicle. My partner picked the bumper up out of the road immediately and laid it in the grass by the roadside while we traded insurance information with the person who hit us. Before we could even finish, the property manager sent a «security» person to tell us to remove our bumper from the premises. If this is the kind of treatment we can expect for our patronage in this shopping center, we will NEVER EVER spend a penny here again.

So convenient, so close to Richmond city. In my eyes its like having a miniature short pump, but less than half the distance! Literally a few exits past Richmond, on 64 and you’re here. Not a ghetto crowd as some people have said, everyone in the stores has been fairly polite and I get the feeling the prices on some of the stores are unusually low (perhaps based on the surrounding neighborhoods). Awesome restaurant out there that’s famous in the area called Mexico Restaurant, there’s a bowling alley and a skating rink! I love this place!

At first I really thought this was going to be a great shopping area, however, having experienced it at least a half dozen times, you realize it doesn’t live up to the hype. It kind of claims to be a type of ‘Outlet Center’, but these prices are not ‘outlet’ pricing.
There are a couple exceptions here, like the Bath and Body store. It is nice and large with lots of room to move around in; unlike most of their mall stores. Also the Ashley Stewart store has very reasonable pricing, especially for larger women’s clothing.
Now that it has been open for some time, we find ourselves mostly going to this area for the Olive Garden or other Restaurants, not so much for the shopping; as we had initially suspected.

The Shops at White Oak Village is the newest shopping center/​mall in the Richmond area. All of the store are outside at White Oak Village. The setup of White Oak Village is different from other outside malls in the area (Short Pump Mall & Stony Point). The stores are spaced out. You can walk to some stores but other you may have to drive. White Oak Village has a good selection of stores for customers. Some of the biggest attractions at the mall are Target, JC Penny’s, Michaels, Sephora, and PetSmart. There isn’t a food court at the mall but some good restaurants in the vicinity. Some of the restaurants around the mall include Longhorn Steakhouse, Panera Bread, Craker Barrel, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster to name a few. I give The Shops at White Oak Village a 3.5 rating.

I pretty much exclusively use this mall for all my shopping thse days. Theres mostly everything you need there. My favorites are target, jc penney, bath & body works, fridays, chick fil a… Too many more to mention…
I didnt think I would like this mall when they were building it cause its an «outdoor» mall but its not that bad. I just dont do any walking around like I would if it were an inside mall like VCC. Thats probably a good thing saving me some money!
The one thing missing here is a movie theater!

I’m not quite sure what I think of White Oak. I know the name comes off as some type of mall/​shopping center, but the whole thing is kind of inconvenient.
While the stores you want to visit may be at this location, it is possible that you’d spend a good amount of time driving from one to another and looking for parking at some of the smaller shops. This isn’t a simple park outside of the Target, do a little shopping, and walk over to another few stores before hittting up a restaurant for lunch. This is, park in front of Target, do your shopping, get back in the car, go around a traffic circle, and drive to another park of the shopping center, do that shopping, drive to another part of the shopping center, etc.
I’d much rather hit up an actual mall where I can park, walk around and do my thing, and get out of there.

Meh. I know how badly this area needed a «mall» but for how long it’s been and seeing what is here I’m disappointed. No Panera’s Bread, Starbucks, DTLR or Foot Locker. It appears the clothing stores around here seem like they’re completely missing the demographics of local neighborHOODs like of Seven Gables, St Paul’s area and Varina. Doesn’t seem like much is here for guys. at all.
Either way it doesn’t matter it’s usually dead here except for the restaurants like Olive Garden, Chik Fil A and Red Lobsters. What is strange is that everything here .and near here seems to be a mini version of their West End counterparts. The Best Buy across the street, The Red Lobster. all are noticbly smaller.
There is a roundabout for some odd reason, and 70% of the area is empty parking lot. You’ll ask yourself «wow do people around here know how to drive?!» the answer is likely no since two high schools are about 15 minutes away and the international airport is also close by. plus it’s still new so you’re getting a mix of newbies on the road dealing with a roundabout.
Long story short I would not be surprised to see this place go the way of this area’s last mall, Eastgate aka Fairfield Commons that’s only 5 or so minutes down the street. People here are very rude except for Chikfila or whatever. I will never go to the GameStop here again, it’ was my first time experiencing a ghetto GameStop. The employees wear urban clothes, du rags howeer you spell it. kids are always in here and it’s the size of a closet with maybe 2 bins of used games that are still fairly new and from this gen. Short Pump is still the best shopping center.

Well, it’s great to have a lot of different stores in one place here on the East side of Henrico, unfortunately, the service in almost all of the stores we have been in is sub-​par. The Martin’s may have some of the same employees as Ukrops did, but they are unfriendly and not very helpful. The Cracker Barrel I have had to walk out of 2 times because no one came to wait on us, and the McDonald’s is a joke.
TGIFridays has been ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ on the service. Chik Fil A is always packed and they are pretty good as far as service goes. One of the least busy places with some of the best subs I’ve had is Firehouse Subs. The guys that work there aren’t the friendliest but the food is great. The AT&T store and Longhorn have had the best, most friendliest service I’ve experienced.
The convenience is great, it’s a beautiful shopping Village, but I swear I don’t think anyone gives a crap about service anymore.

It’s not as quaint as the name sounds, but it’s been a godsend for those of us who live on the east side of town. Now, instead of going to Willow Lawn to go to the Target or pet store, I can zip up two exits on 64 and have department stores, my own Tar-​Jay, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s and tons of small boutiques.
There are also several restaurants including a Cracker Barrel and a Friday’s, as well as a nice Ukrop’s (it’s till Ukrops to me!).
I’m not wild about Office Max. Their prices are much higher than Office Depot or Staples and their rewards card is a joke.