In Lieu of Oscars, South Coast Plaza Gave Bags of Beans at Awards Night : RETAILING

South Coast Plaza gave out its version of the Academy Awards Wednesday night--but instead of gold Oscars, winning merchants were handed burlap bags of lima beans.

The bags--in honor of the former agricultural use of the site that is now South Coast Plaza--were given to stores that opened at the original mall and Crystal Court in 1987.

The event in Costa Mesa was the mall’s annual merchants’ dinner. Categories of awards ranged from highest sales per square foot to highest total gross sales for major and specialty stores.

Among the big anchor tenants, Nordstrom led the list, sweeping the categories of highest total gross sales (for the second year), as well as greatest increase in dollar sales and best customer service.

But if customers were spending the most money at Nordstrom, they were ogling the goods at its arch-competitor, Bullock’s--which took honors for best merchandise presentation and best window display.

Highest total gross sales for a specialty store went to Polo/Ralph Lauren, which also was one of three winners--along with the Golden Bough and Esprit--for best merchandise presentation among specialty stores.

Outstanding retailer of the year went to Gucci. And the always-crowded Disney Store took Rookie of the Year.

In a new category added this year, silver lapel pins were given to 31 stores that were first in their respective companies in 1987, according to gross volume or sales per square foot. The list included Nordstrom, Bullock’s, the May Co., Alex Sebastian, Foot Locker, Mrs. Field’s Cookies and Optica.