Article by: Jesse Watrous
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| © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA - The Oaks Mall held it’s annual event where families can enjoy Trick or Treating with their families in a safe area from 5:00 - 7:00pm. Myself, husband, and daughter arrived at 5:15pm to join the festivities. The Oaks Mall’s Facebook page only mentioned that JCPenney held their own event from 12:00pm - 6:00pm without including if the rest of the mall was having their annual event. I found the event by searching online to confirm the time on an obscure site that I can no longer find.
Children came dressed in cute costumes as well as a few teenagers and adults, but teenagers and adults were not allowed to wear masks that covers their full face for safety reasons.
The Oaks Mall didn’t have all of the stores participate during the event. If the store had an orange flyer, they were giving treats but if a store had a purple flyer, they were not participating. As a parent, I found this very odd since it doesn’t cost that much to buy large bags of candy to pass out for 2 hours.
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| © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
Not only did we find it odd that stores didn’t participate, but the stores were high end stores such as (but not limited to):
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| Sephora © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
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| Express © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
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| Lush © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
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| Game Stop © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
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| Box Lunch © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
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| Build-A-Bear Workshop © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
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| Disney © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
The most successful store that my husband and I found was the ARHAUS store, which I didn’t know existed. We had to walk all the way in, towards their registers in order for my daughter to receive candy and we found that to be a smart marketing move on their part.
We also found many empty stores and were not sure if they were vacant or under construction. These stores were covered in black curtains but no sign of indicating of what was going on. We found it a bit disconcerting on how many empty stores there were at this time.
My daughter (a green fairy) had a fun time and received a full bucket of candy after 1 hour going through the entire mall. Afterwards, we went to the play area where other families decided to do the same. The two hour event was the right amount of time in my opinion. Many more families came after 6:30pm.
My favorite stores that we visited:
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| Spencer's © Jesse Watrous / FEARLESS INDIE MAGAZINE |
As a family, we enjoy the traditional Trick or Treating in neighborhoods but since it was very cold and windy that evening, it was much safer and warmer than being outside.
I recommend coming to this annual event.
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