Promenade Mall

I was in the center of the Promenade Mall on Friday night, which is a mall in Woodland Hills that looks very much like a mall, when a middle-aged gentleman walked up to me and said, "Can you tell me where the mall is?" I studied him for a moment to assure myself he was not one of those mall perverts you hear so much about and then replied, "You're in it."

The Northridge Fashion Center, which already has the highest sales volume of any mall in the San Fernando Valley, is about to begin a major expansion that is all but certain to include Robinson's and May Co. department stores, according to the mall's management and executives of the two chains.

President's Day and St. Patrick's Day aren't major celebrations for most people, but for retailers trying to pry an extra dollar from the consumer's wallet they are "events" around which an enticing window display, a special sale or a promotion can be planned. That's why many retailers at the Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills had already put up their St. Patrick's Day displays Monday, even as they were concluding their President's Day sales.