MAKING A LIST: Malls, fighting for every...

MAKING A LIST: Malls, fighting for every sale, are reaching for all kinds of ideas to attract shoppers. MainPlace/Santa Ana, for instance, is touting a computerized Christmas registry developed by a Laguna Hills company. . . . Like wedding gift registries, the device allows someone to draft a “wish list” of items from any of the mall’s shops. The registry supplies you with cards that you then give to relatives and friends, emblazoned with a bar code that will tip the computer to spit out your list. Thus, shoppers can buy gifts that are “especially wanted or really needed,” the registry’s designer says.