Shopping Countdown : Malls offer visits with Santa, train rides, food and comfy sofas for those in need.
Maybe it’s those magnetic strips on the backs of credit cards that are pulling our wallets and purses to the malls and we just go along for the ride.
Or, it could be that during the holiday season everyone has adopted a tradition of depleting the checking account before moving on to baking cookies and decorating.
Whatever the cause, the malls are filled with shoppers and it’s every man, woman and child for him- or herself. Finding a parking space may be challenging, but, answer this: Is it really worth it to cut off that little old lady and take her space so you can get inside faster?
To give this season’s shoppers a bit of an advantage, we went inside four of Ventura County’s malls and took notes on what each had to offer.
Let’s start with the newly remodeled Pacific View mall in Ventura. The mall has paid $350,000 to bring a one-of-a-kind, surf-and-sand Santa to the 1.1-million-square-foot shopping center.
Santa sits on the tailgate of a station wagon next to a 28-foot pine tree decorated with starfish.
The mall’s skylights bring a cheerful natural lighting to the facility, but neither the pine garlands and wreaths nor the cushioned sofas and arm chairs soften its interior.
Security guards and monitors made us feel safe but added to the institutional atmosphere.
Still, merchandise-filled stores kept shoppers busy. Macy’s, JCPenney, Robinsons-May and Sears seemed to be the biggest draws.
Claire’s, Dollar Dazzle, Ellie’s Crafts, Footlocker, Joseph’s Jewelers, Miller’s Outpost, Payless Shoesource, Radio Shack, See’s Candies and Mrs. Fields Cookies were also attracting shoppers.
“Sales people here were friendly even though they had to be stressed with all the crowds,” said Marguerite Jernigan, 67, of Oxnard.
Jernigan said she enjoyed shopping at the two-level mall and especially liked her experience at the Robinsons-May store.
The Pacific View can be accessed from South Mills Road, East Main Street and Telegraph Road. For those not familiar with the area, be sure to take note of how you arrived there because we saw no signs directing us back to the freeway.
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Crowds and parking were not a problem at The Esplanade shopping center in Oxnard, where we spotted one little boy pretending to be the engineer of the J & B Railroad, a miniature train just outside Kay Bee Toys.
The ride operator just let him go around and around as his family watched, since no other children were waiting in line to plunk down $1 and hop aboard.
The Esplanade has a huge Christmas tree that is beautifully decorated. A friendly Santa sat alone but waved and smiled as we passed by. In the same area was a giant snow bubble we found quite extraordinary.
Prices at The Esplanade were good and the sales people we met were helpful, without being pushy.
And, though The Esplanade no longer has Sears or Robinsons-May as anchor stores, it has a fully functioning food court, currently missing at Pacific View.
“I come here all the time to shop for clothes. I like the variety of stores they have,” said Iris Ornelas, 15, of Oxnard.
The Esplanade is just off the Ventura Freeway between Vineyard Avenue and Oxnard Boulevard.
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At The Oaks in Thousand Oaks, the mall interior is decked out in oversized ribbon spirals, shiny beads and large wrapped gift boxes in purples and blues.
The new Santa set includes a green velvet chair and a small Christmas tree, which makes it seem as though the big guy from the North Pole is sitting in a traditional Georgian-style living room.
For the holidays, The Oaks is offering special services, such as gift wrapping and valet parking, located at the north entrance near the Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
Soft sofas and hard benches are available for resting and plenty of working elevators, escalators and stairs to help you get around. A playground is set up in the center, where active kids can play and weary moms can rest. There are also places to eat food and goodies.
With all this, five major department stores and 130 specialty shops, The Oaks is attracting many shoppers.
Not all of them are polite.
“I noticed some of the other shoppers are pushy. They would just shove me aside to get at what they wanted,” said Thousand Oaks resident Sandra Zuniga, 15.
Sandra does not plan to let the rudeness of others, or her belief that the mall is an expensive place to shop, deter her from buying clothes, perfume and shoes at The Oaks, she said.
The Oaks is north of the Ventura Freeway. Just take the Lynn Road exit.
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Down the road from The Oaks is Janss Marketplace, a 440,000-square-foot, open-air center, which continues to evolve and expand.
It has a multilevel parking lot, where a shopper could get lucky and find a few spaces open--assuming the movies playing at the Mann multiplex aren’t drawing a huge crowd.
Toys R Us, Mervyn’s, Marshall’s, Linens N Things and Sears are the chain stores that have been there awhile. Old Navy, Gateway Country, Clothestime and an expanded Aaron Brothers Art & Framing are new additions.
Janss Marketplace also offers a convincing Santa, from Crazy California Clowns, who has a hearty “ho, ho, ho.” He is always ready and willing to sing “Jingle Bells,” and other Christmas tunes with children, as he has done for at least 10 years.
Nancy Needham can be reached by e-mail at nancy.needham@reporters.net.
