Freeway Travelers Boon to Outlets, Manager Says

One thing that has surprised Peggy Wimberley in her first five months as general manager of the Oxnard Factory Outlet is the number of cars that pass by the 148,000-square-foot complex as they travel along the Ventura Freeway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

“In our situation, the daily traffic count is 120,000,” she said.

It is those travelers who allow the 37-store Oxnard outlet, the 50-store Camarillo Factory Stores outlet, three large regional shopping centers and scores of smaller centers to operate in Ventura County, she said.

In addition, she said, the demographics of surrounding areas and local tourism make the area well-suited for factory outlets.

“A lot of centers are built out away from retail density. The population within 100 miles for them is 2 to 3 million,” she said. “Ours is 14 million. We draw from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to Bakersfield on a regular basis.”

As for tourism, Wimberley said most outlets can count on anywhere from 2 million to 10 million tourists in their respective regions each year. For Oxnard and Camarillo, it’s about 25 million tourists.