Seasonal Retailers Fill Fashion Square During Holidays

When December arrives, Westfield Fashion Square mall fills not only with shoppers and holiday decorations, but with a crop of seasonal retailers that lease space in the mall’s kiosks and within in-line stores.

This year, All Pro Sports, ToyZam! and California Basics were among those opening holiday stores at Fashion Square. But the real influx took place with retailers leasing the mall’s kiosks or RMUs (retail merchandising units) as the mall calls them.

The kiosk ranks nearly doubled, according to Juliet Mothershed, Fashion Square’s marketing director, to a total of 28 merchants doing business out of RMUs. Demand was so great, she said, that Fashion Square had to borrow a couple of kiosks from another Westfield shopping center.

“We’re mindful of our tenants that are already here,” Mothershed added. “The RMUs complement the existing stores and what the customers want.”

For the kiosk vendors themselves, entrepreneurial motives vary.

For example, Adi Amuial, 28, who runs the All About Me kiosk, ultimately wants to open a brick-and-mortar retail store. Because his brother owns six  stores on the East Coast and has a business relationship with Pillow Pets, Amuial was able to acquire the rights to sell the unique combination stuffed toy and pillow. The ones he sells come attired in team jerseys from Major League baseball and college football teams.

He carries 70 teams, a much wider selection than is found in any local store, he said. The line of pillows is expanding to include both a smaller and a jumbo version, which is why he said he will need to move from the mall RMU when the holidays are over.

But he added that the secret to mall sales is picking the right product and making sure it’s on hand when customers want to buy. The hours are long and the work “brutal,” he said, but added, “It’s better than knocking on doors when I was in college and selling windows and siding in 30-degree weather.”

For Tommy Ibraham, 29, co-owner of the Customizers, a T-shirt and sweatshirt retailer, his business is seasonal only. He took a kiosk this year after seeing how his friends, some who serve in the Army and some who work as physicians, took on the side business during the holidays and made extra money.

So, during the holidays, he was busy heat-pressing images on T-shirts and sweatshirts, which, he said, is the secret to his sales success.

“People want to put their own photographs, story, comment or name on the T-shirt so that it’s personalized,” he said. But he added, once the holidays are over, “no one buys these,” so he'll be moving on.

For mother-and-son team Randa Horrocks and Abraham Fashen, who run the Iso Beauty kiosk, the mall is their ultimate retail destination. For five years, Horrocks worked the kiosk for Iso Beauty, which sells hair straightener and curling tools and formerly held the lease. Then Horrocks and her son took out the lease on their own when the opportunity arose. Aside from being shifted to make way for more vendors, their routine has been the same for the past five years.

“I work 11 to 15 hours daily, I’m on my feet standing here, I take the time to do their hair, and I’m happy,” Horrocks smiled.

Indeed, she seemed to love greeting mall shoppers and urging them to take a seat for a sample of how the hair tools work.

“You have to be a good salesperson,” her son said while calling out offers to shoppers. “You can’t be sitting in your chair, or you’re not going to sell anything.”