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San Diego Shoppers Flock to the Malls

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published November 23, 2007 at 1:29 PM PST
This story was published more than 17 years ago.

Malls around San Diego were crowded before dawn broke this morning. KPBS reporter Alison St. John found plenty of people whose shopping day had already finished around 9 this morning.

San Diego Shoppers Flock to the Malls

Malls around San Diego were crowded before dawn broke this morning. KPBS reporter Alison St. John found plenty of people whose shopping day had already finished around 9 this morning.

Some of those leaving the Carlsbad Mall were taking their third load of shopping bags back to the car. Many of those bags were full of clothes. Sandy Kefflen from L.A. and Arlene Kent of  Cardiff declared they had had a successful night.

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Kefflen & Kent: We started at 4 this morning, we hit the Carlsbad outlet first -- it opened at midnight, lot of holiday gifts but I also got clothes for me. More for ourselves than for gifts, but that always happens. That's part of the fun. We have kids you know and girls, and they all want clothes.   Lots of shopping for them, and one for them one for us,  so that's why we're loaded up today.

St John: And how much do you think you're going to spend this Christmas?

Kefflen: Probably $500 to $700.

St John: And does it go on the credit card?" 

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Kefflen: No we're trying to do cash this year

St John: How about you?

Kent: I charge everything.

Sixteen-year-old Stephanie Bye of Carlsbad and her friend Sheri Jane visiting from  Chicago were each given $100 by their mothers to spend in the pre-Christmas sales. But their shopping trip was more about being where the action is, than about buying presents.

Bye: Well I went to the outlet Mall at midnight, but the lines were too long so we just kinda like hung out and then I went home at 3:30.   I came here at 6 a.m.

St John: How about you?

Jane: I got up at 7:35 this morning and I get a text message, and she's just like  -- I'm at the mall right now wanna come? So I'm like sure why not. So I came here to do some shopping, supposedly to do Christmas shopping, but that didn't turn out, so it was mostly for me.

St John: But it was fun?

Jane: Yea it was fun.

Those looking more seriously for bargains in higher cost items like electronics reported stores had run out of the discounted goods advertised well before dawn.  But Macy's stores clerk Amanda says the crowds are not thinning out  as the day goes on.

Amanda: It was packed at 6 a.m. and now it's worse.

Most Malls expect shoppers will have run out of steam, and possibly cash by tonight and are closing at their normal hour of 9 or 10 pm.

Alison St John KPBS News.

Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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