51.5 F
Laguna Hills
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Mixed Black Friday at Malls

South Coast Plaza was enjoying Black Friday as the Costa Mesa mall was jammed, while elsewhere around the county malls were slower.

“It’s totally dead compared to last year,” said Jayme Monica, a personal shopper from San Diego who was at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

It was about 10:30 a.m. She had just finished stuffing several bags inside of her sport utility vehicle and was headed back to Fashion Island to finish up.

It took her six minutes to get a parking spot in the largely open parking lot and that’s only because she parked two cars away from the sidewalk outside Neiman Marcus.

Monica said many of the stores knew Black Friday would be a bust, so they started their sales last week.

“Bloomies has the best sales,” she said.

Many stores at Fashion Island were having a sale but that didn’t seem to matter.

Foothill Ranch-based mall retailer Wet Seal Inc.’s 30% discount on everything in its Fashion Island store did little to lure in shoppers.

Limited also offered 30% discount. Victoria’s Secret, a barometer for holiday sales, seemed to be filled with more employees than customers.

People were seemingly enjoying the day with friends and family at Fashion Island. They sat around the fish pond and posed in front of the giant Christmas tree for photos, but few had shopping bags.

Right around 11 a.m., when Santa began work, there were only 20 people in line to get photos taken.

Santa was lonelier at Buena Park Downtown, where no one was waiting to get their photos taken. At Ross, few people were waiting to check out. Bed Bath & Beyond also had more workers than shoppers.

Buena Park Downtown has been struggling for several years, awaiting national tenants and the construction of John’s Incredible Pizza on its lower level.

Shoppers seemed to cluster at Sears and to a greater extent Wal-Mart, which was busy. But by Wal-Mart standards on prior Black Fridays, the store wasn’t that crowded.

Oddly, shoppers couldn’t get to Wal-Mart from the inside of the mall. There was a gate up. Shoppers had to walk outside the mall to enter Wal-Mart.

The Westminster Mall seemed to be picking up the slack. The mall was bustling. As was South Coast Plaza where parking lots were full and the mall had its share of bag-laden shoppers.

Irvine Spectrum Center and the Marketplace in Irvine and Tustin also seemed busy.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-