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What would be the best way to legitimately gain access to shopping malls at night? I want to walk around at 2am and just take in the vibe. I’m too busy to become a night guard so I was thinking of finessing some contractor thing. Doesn’t need to be consistent.
I worked for an inventory service when I was in college and mall stores did their inventories after close, which any day other than Sunday was 9:00 pm. So a typical inventory would last from 9:00 to 1 or 2 am. Some stores would do there's before open and those would start at six so the sales floor would be done around 10. Take this advice with a grain of salt since it's been 20 years and my memory isn't great, but I don't believe security ever had to let us in for any of the early stores. We were always told to park near the "main entrance" of the mall, which is almost invariably the entrance into the food court if the mall has one. I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think there was always one door that was open near here where you could just walk in; I don't remember having to ever call security or anything like that to be let in, though since I had a legitimate reason to be there it's possible that security just left a door open for us, though that wouldn't make a ton of sense because in that case I'd imagine they'd leave the door close to the store open.
It's also worth keeping in mind that in this situation you'd stick out like a sore thumb. Actual employees have keys to service doors that allow them to access corridors that run along the perimeter of the building so they can get into the back room of the store. I believe this is strictly necessary since the security gates will only unlock from the inside, though I'm not entirely sure about this. I do know that when we left a late store in the middle of the night, the last group to leave would always exit through the outside door. The point is, though, that the risk of detection is pretty high, since the parking lot will be empty and you'll be wandering around aimlessly in an area that is pretty highly surveilled.
While @self_made_human's recommendation of a hard hat and safety vest is generally correct, there are better ways of getting in (not to mention that it's become a bit of a meme at this point). My recommendation would be to dress in business casual and carry a computer bag. Show up around 6:00 am or a little earlier and try the main entrance doors. Your cover story is that you're from Boschini, Miller and Associates accounting firm there to supervise the inventory of a store that's located in the mall. You will only need to use this if you get accosted, though if you're bold you may be able to use this at a security intercom or something if there aren't any open doors. Make sure the store you pick is a national chain with a different location in a nearby mall. If security somehow knows that there's no inventory scheduled for that day, get out some paperwork that has the name of the other mall on it and get flustered and embarrassed that you somehow got it in your head that it was at this mall and you obviously have to go now because you are late.
Ironically, the bigger risk here is that the security guard buys your story, because now you have nowhere to go but you can't really leave. You'd be limited to making a beeline for the store and then a beeline back to the entrance, telling the guard about your mistake if caught again. Other than that, it's a good cover because it admits that you aren't supposed to be there. It also means that the guard will be disinclined to pursue the matter further or make additional inquiries because the apparent situation is now that you're running extremely late, and any nervousness on your part would be expected considering the professional bind you are now in. I can say from my years as an inventory taker that it isn't unheard of to go to the wrong store. Aside from that, I don't know why you'd want to go to a mall in the middle of the night. Whatever vibe you're imagining is so unimpressive that I can't even remember if they kept the music on, or if they turned off any house lights. As far as I can remember it's just a bunch of closed stores and no people. Just go to a dead mall around closing time and the vibe will be the same.
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A hard hat and a safety vest will get you in most places. If taking up an entirely new line of work isn't in the cards, maybe you can hide in a toilet? Or befriend someone with legitimate reasons to be there?
At a large institution? No, you’ll need to be on a contractor list, with proof of insurance on file, with the contractors scheduled to be there following minimum notice.
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