Shoppers get another weekend for last-minute shopping expeditions
By Avi Rutschman avi@theacorn.com

LAST-MINUTE MISSION—Shoppers and window watchers alike pack the Simi Valley Town Center on a recent Wednesday night. Because Christmas falls on a Monday this year, consumers are being treated to an extra weekend of spending before the big day, a fact not lost on the mall’s numerous storeowners. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers

With an extra weekend on the calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, Simi Valley Town Center is preparing for an onslaught of lastminute holiday shoppers.

The yearold 600,000squarefoot open-air shopping center has seen a steady increase in sales as the giftgiving holiday approaches, according to mall employees.

“We don’t have people or car counters, but I can tell you that it just keeps getting busier and busier,” said Vicki Sherman, Town Center’s director of marketing. “We are seeing the same size crowds that we did last year, which is saying a lot because at that point we were a new mall and we still had that honeymoon factor.”

With its stores stocked with the hottest holiday items, people are flooding in from other nearby cities to take advantage of the extra shopping time.

“The extra weekend definitely makes this shopping season less tense,” said Meghan Collens, a 37yeard-old Simi Valley resident.

According to mall officials, some of the hottest-selling items include UGG boots, winter apparel to help stave off the cold, and the ever-popular Apple iPod. UGG boots, once passed off as a temporary fashion trend, have already surpassed last year’s December sales in half the time.

“(UGGs) are no longer a trend. The thought has become, ‘It’s winter, time to get my UGGs,” said Denton Novick, the manager of J. Stephens, a Town Center men’s and women’s shoe retailer.

According to Sherman, Crocs are another hot item in the footwear department.

For the younger generation, whose members don’t always appreciate receiving clothing for the holidays, electronics appear to be the hot gifts to give. Mall officials have reported strong sales of the X-Box 360, a next-generation video game platform, and video games such as Call of Duty III, a World War II shooter, and Tony Hawk: Project 8, a skateboarding video game.

For those struggling to find a gift for a hardtoshopfor individual, Sherman recommends picking up a Town Center gift card.

“The mall gift cards are honored at any store that accepts credit cards, which is practically all of them. Compared to other malls, where it may cost as much as $4 to activate a card, we only charge $1. By getting someone a gift card, you’re almost giving them the whole mall, and you definitely won’t have to worry about finding the right size,” Sherman said.

And to those waiting until the 11th hour to purchase their gifts, he advises making the extra effort to get to the mall at an early hour.

“If you get up early on the weekend and get in here between 8 and 10 in the morning, you’ll have the mall mostly to yourself. I took a few hours off work one morning and I was able to get my shopping done very quickly,” Sherman said.

In addition to providing gift hunters with a great source for checking off items on their shopping lists, the mall is filled with attractions that add to the holiday ambience.

A 12,000-pound, 67-foot-tall holiday tree decorated with 10,000 lights and 10,000 ornaments glitters in the mall’s center court. On Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m., officials will make it magically snow in that area of the mall.

On Saturday night, the Milestone Trio will be performing between 6 and 9 p.m. on the food court stage.

According to Sherman, the recent cold weather isn’t hampering the mall’s sales.

“Despite the cold, it’s only getting busier, and it makes our snow show seem that much more real,” he said.