Black Friday: Big spending on Rodeo Drive and at Beverly Center
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Many big spenders were out doing damage on Black Friday, hitting up luxury stores as shoppers elsewhere crammed into malls.
As more than 100 protesters gathered at Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to support a ban on fur sales, Newport Beach resident Ann Van Hiel, 55, carted a large shopping bag from Hermes filled with a watch, lotion and bracelets.
On her mother-in-law’s dime, she bought an $800 belt for herself and five travel bags -- at $1,600 each -- for other women in the family.
“These are gifts from my mother-in-law to ourselves,” Van Hiel said, on her way with several family members to lunch at the Ivy. “We have a very generous mother-in-law.”
She stressed that she also shops at retailers such as Target -- just not today.
“We wanted to avoid the crowds,” she said.
Baldwin Hills resident Kim Henry, 33, was at the Beverly Center, where her fiance Mauris Thompson, 34, gifted her with $2,200 in shoes, a bag and a wallet from Gucci. That’s nearly half their $5,000 holiday budget for this year.
But it’s nothing compared to last year, when the couple dropped $13,000 on gifts -- including custom dolls, laptops and games -- for their child and two nephews.
“We went buck wild,” Thompson said.
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