You could barely hear it above the din of shoppers, but Christmas carols were playing at South Coast Plaza on Black Friday.
The parking lots were stuffed that weekend.
“We’re ahead of last year in terms of car count,” said Debra Gunn Downing, director of marketing for the shopping center.
Just about the only way to get a spot was to stalk shoppers to their cars. Didn’t people know it was Buy Nothing Day? (A low-profile movement to counter the rapid shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.)
One family armed themselves with walkie-talkies, up for serious shopping. Inside, families posed in front of the red poinsettias for holiday photos, men read newspapers and slept in department store chairs. I’m always impressed at the number of women who shop in stilettos.
Olympic silver medallist skater Sasha Cohen and actor Hal Landon Jr., who plays Scrooge in South Coast Repertory’s “A Christmas Carol,” lit the center’s Christmas tree last week.
Many of the mall’s stores followed the trend of opening earlier on Black Friday, as early as 5 a.m., Gunn Downing said.
The center officially opens at 9 a.m. Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears and several boutiques thought it wise to get a jump start. Nordstrom and Target at the Irvine Spectrum Center opened at 6 a.m. as well as Macy’s at Fashion Island.
Around town, some stores even opened Thanksgiving evening. A future trend perhaps? Not at South Coast Plaza. It’s not likely to ever open on Thanksgiving, Gunn Downing said.
South Coast Plaza is a family business, she said.
“They are respectful of the holiday,” Gunn Downing said.
On the third floor was a retreat for the media, busy working on annual holiday shopping stories. There, the shopping center served Ruby’s milkshakes, gingerbread lattes, H & #228;agen-Dazs sundaes. “Elf” was showing on the Pioneer-borrowed flat screen TV. Restoration Hardware lent the dark wood furniture. Red candles and the scent of cinnamon added to the ambiance. A real person played the piano.
“Every year we try to put a little different twist on it,” she said.
Most of the local media showed up, including the big dailies and Vietnamese newspapers. Gunn Downing also expected TV news.
Looking to 2007, Gunn Downing said luxury retail will remain strong and South Coast Plaza will see even bigger sales. The major store openings next year will be Bloomingdale’s and H & M; (opening two stores next year, one next to the department store), she said.
The center expects to open 20 to 30 stores in 2007.
Next year, the shopping center will celebrate its 40th anniversary, complete with a new look and logo.
Nationally, the 140 million people that went shopping on Black Friday spent an average of $360.15, up nearly 19%, according to Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation.
This is sort of amusing: “Retailers learned this weekend that men are willing to get out of bed for a good deal.”
That’s according to Phil Rist, vice president of strategy for BIGresearch LLC.
Krispy Kreme Now Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A opened in Orange at 2575 N. Tustin St. at a former Krispy Kreme.
As for the rumored opening of Chick-fil-A at the Block at Orange, spokeswoman Dawn Sullivan said the chain tried its best to secure that Krispy Kreme location but the doughnut maker “has retained the rights there.” The chicken eatery still plans to open in that area.
The store in Orange opened with Chick-fil-A’s “First 100” promotion. The first 100 adults in line get $26,000 worth of Chick-fil-A food for a year.
President Dan Cathy was expected to spend the evening with campers who waited in line. Whenever Chick-fil-A opens, fans come with tents, heaters, Nintendo and laptops, Sullivan said. They play poker games and Monopoly and they wait.
“It’s just mind boggling,” Sullivan said.
Go Speed Racer
If a customer at Crevier BMW is interested in racing, they’re usually sent Judy Ray’s way.
They take one look at the car-racing grandmother who looks like a school teacher in her high heels and skirt and say “Yeah right,” she said.
“I raced Porsches for 16 years,” she said.
She’ll take customers to the Willow Springs racetrack and show them how to drive fast and be safe at the same time.
“It’s a matter of control,” she said. “It’s taking a 3,000 pound partner and going out and doing a beautiful dance.”
She took three Superior Court judges out to the track in a BMW 750 sedan.
“They were clapping their hands like kids,” she said.
“We women have a talent for racing,” Ray said.
Women have more hand-eye coordination required for speed, according to Ray.
Ray makes the perfect saleswoman because she talks about cars as if they weren’t just mechanical hunks of metal. She calls Porsches “very strong willed, opinionated cars.”
BMWs she says are fun and compliant.
“It won’t argue or fuss back,” she said.
Ray started selling cars again at Crevier a few months ago.
At her own nonprofit business, Laguna Niguel-based Driving Concepts Inc., Ray teaches teens to drive defensively. Kids tend to lean back in their seats, which in an accident is bad for the neck and spine, she said.
