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Friday, Mar 29, 2024
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Local Malls Experience a Busy Black Friday

This year, Valley shopping centers reaped the benefits of a busy Black Friday. A majority of Valley shopping centers had a number of tenants participating in midnight openings such as Westfield Topanga, Northridge Fashion Center and Westfield Fashion Square. Some local malls hosted a Midnight Madness event, in which tenants open early, offering customers extended shopping hours. Tish Cabezas, senior manager of marketing for Macerich, which owns The Oaks shopping center in Thousand Oaks said the mall’s first annual Midnight Madness event resulted in a “strong” Black Friday. Although Cabezas did not disclose specific foot traffic or sales results, she confirmed the event, which included four hours of music entertainment, was a success. “A lot of customers say they prefer to stay up late after Thanksgiving rather than get up extra early to take advantage of exciting Black Friday deals and new holiday merchandise,” Cabezas said. “The Oaks definitely experienced this in our first year to open at midnight.” According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, a record 226 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the holiday weekend, a seven percent increase from last year. Also increasing was the number of shoppers getting a head start on Black Friday shopping. According to NRF, nearly 25 percent of shoppers were at the stores by midnight either waiting for stores to open or visiting retailers who opened on Thanksgiving evening. By comparison, the number of people who were at the stores at midnight was 9.5 percent in 2010 and 3.3 percent in 2009.

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