I think someone forgot to send a memo!
Here we are at Santa Monica Place.
It's been open for over an hour and now we are starting to see some shopping action...
...but not too much. I stopped a guy, 20ish dressed in USC clothes who was carrying four or five big Macy's shopping bags.
"Wow, looks like you're done with your whole list already!"
"Yeah, when I'm home [Milwaukee] my mom and sisters always go shopping first thing in the morning. I used to think they're crazy," he said, "I didn't go home this year and LOOK." He holds up the bags.
His name is Jason, he goes to USC as "advertised" by his outfit. He has lots of studying to do for finals and end of the term so he got his shopping out of the way. He said getting up early today would probably keep him from just sleeping the whole day, he felt like he was being productive.
I didn't mention that now he has to schlep all that stuff all the way back to Milwaukee and I didn't ask his last name so I can't tell his mom via this blog that her son is being extra studious these days.
I moved on down the hall looking for other shoppers. They were few and far between and not chatty. The good news for the retailers is that the people who actually are shopping are all carrying shopping bags. The bad news is there aren't many.
Oh, so the memo that was forgotten? To tell everyone in the heart of LA, the people who inevitably are having the usual crowd experience, to come to Santa Monica early for stress free shopping.
Stress free unless you have been hired to cover the masses of people shopping on Black Friday and then this whole emptiness is unnerving! :)