The mall becomes a library/playground
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- December
- 11
This summer, when I started thinking about taking Pumpkin to story hour, I checked events at local libraries. It never occurred to me to see what was up at the mall. But it turns out that some of the retailers at The Westchester, at least, are catering to moms who want to combine a trip to the mall with entertainment for their tots. Pottery Barn Kids (on Wednesdays) and babystyle (on Thursdays) have story times in the mornings. The mall’s operator, Simon Property Group, has a kids’ club that holds events like breakfast with Santa and a visit with the Care Bears. I learned about these events when I was reporting a story on how The Westchester is becoming a real magnet for parents, thanks mostly to a growing number of children’s stores.
I’ve been shopping at The Westchester since I moved to the county in 1995, just a few months after the mall opened. In the years before I had Pumpkin, I didn’t have too much call for visiting the kids’ stores except to buy gifts for my nieces and nephews. So when I made my first trip to the mall last summer after I had Pumpkin, it was a revelation to see more than a dozen children’s stores. Pottery Barn Kids and babystyle had just opened that spring. This year, another two kids’ stores, Lucky Kid and crewcuts, opened. The third-floor corridor just below the food court has one kids’ store after another. What’s interesting, too, is how many are unique stores, like Hanna Andersson, that you can’t find anywhere else in our area.
When I was at the mall to talk to parents for the story, it was jammed with strollers. (There was even a traffic jam at the entrance to Children’s Place.) Moms told me they like the mall because they can do a lot in one place. They also like the carpeting, which is friendly to toddlers just learning to walk. (One mom lets her toddler loose with her Fisher-Price walker.)
So far this holiday season, we haven’t been shopping in a mall. The key attraction for me as a parent is having stores all in one place so I can get Pumpkin in her stroller and go. The food court is also a plus. We have done “downtown” shopping in Katonah and Mount Kisco, which has the advantage of stroller-friendly sidewalks, but obviously far fewer stores.
What’s kind of neat about the crowds of parents (mostly moms) at The Westchester is that the ones I spoke with felt a certain camaraderie with each other. One mom, Kristen Riolo of Cross River, runs a program called Stroller Strides. The moms get together and exercise with their little ones before the mall opens. They mix socializing and then shopping a bit.
How about the rest of you? Do you make special trips to get to The Westchester for its kids’ stores? What do you think about stores hosting story events? What makes you decide where to shop with your children?
(By the way, I’ll be talking about this story in a Webcast on LoHud.com later this week.)
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 1:25 pm by Julie Moran Alterio.
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