South Coast Plaza Goes Beyond the ‘M’ Word : Retailing: With its wealth of specialty and department stores, it’s a shopper’s dream and a bona fide tourist attraction.
It is, without a doubt, the Tiffany’s of shopping malls. In fact, Tiffany & Co. is a tenant. But don’t use the M word and make the mistake of referring to South Coast Plaza as a mere mall.
The preferred terms here are gateway retail destination or America’s premiere retail center. The latter was conferred on South Coast Plaza by American Airlines and the Walt Disney Travel Co. when the firms added the shopping center as a destination on their package tours--along with such rival tourist spots as Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo and Universal Studios. (All of which South Coast Plaza outranks in terms of numbers of visitors, with an estimated 18 million “guests” annually).
California’s office of tourism even thought enough of the place to name it one of the state’s “20 Fun Spots.”
But whether South Coast Plaza should be considered a mall, retail center or tourist attraction is immaterial. Die-hard shoppers have their own term for it: the ultimate.
No wonder. The center may not be California’s largest mall (that honor belongs to Torrance’s Del Amo Fashion Center), but it is surely the ritziest, featuring many shops more closely identified with Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue.
Among the tenants are Cartier, Mark Cross, Polo/Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Burberry’s, Rizzoli, Gucci, Bally’s of Switzerland, Louis Vuitton, Barneys New York (which includes an Hermes department), FAO Schwarz, Esprit, George Jensen, Orrefors, Porsche Design, Laura Ashley, Alfred Dunhill, Bruno Magli, Fila, Boehm Porcelain Gallery, Descamps, Abercrombie & Fitch, Jessica McClintock, and Koala Blue. Plus, the Laguna Museum of Art has a branch there.
Chanel, the current candidate for most imitated retailer in the world, opened a store in South Coast Plaza. Also scheduled for fall openings are a Calvin Klein store, a Liz Claiborne boutique, and a branch of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop.
This is the place to see it all. For along with such specialty shops, there are eight department stores (I. Magnin, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Robinson’s, Bullock’s, The Broadway, May Co. and Sears). And more than 300 stores total, including such familiar standbys as The Limited and The Gap.
Altogether, the South Coast Plaza’s retail section covers more than 10 acres. Indeed, the center is so big and diversified that some retailers (Esprit, for example) have even taken out two stores.
All considered, South Coast Plaza is not a bad little package, especially when you consider that less than 25 years ago the whole place was nothing but a lima bean field. It was developed in 1966 by C. J. Segerstrom & Sons.
It’s hard to find shoppers with many complaints about South Coast Plaza, but when you do they’re likely to bemoan the fact that the place can get so crowded you can spend 10 minutes just getting out of the parking lot.
The quibbles are small, however, when you consider that the persnickety shoppers who raise them are the same shoppers who respectfully refer to the center as “South Coast Mecca.” Even Women’s Wear Daily, the publication whose pickiness is legendary, approves of the place. And it dared to use the M word when in May it crowned South Coast Plaza “California’s most successful mall.”
South Coast Plaza is located at the intersection of the San Diego Freeway (405) and Bristol Street in Costa Mesa, about 45 miles south of Los Angeles and 80 miles north of San Diego. It is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily except weekends. Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
