Outlets at Tejon beat expectations, bring in thousands of Kern County residents

By: Lesley Marin, Oscar Contreras

Posted: 10:14 AM, Aug 10, 2014

ARVIN, Calif. - Shopping was in full swing this weekend as the Outlets at Tejon celebrated their official grand opening.

It's estimated that nearly 225,000 people came through the outlets since opening day on Thursday. Stores and customers 23ABC spoke to say the center has far exceeded their expectations.

"I just got paid and I don't think I'm going to go home with very much [money] left," said Alex Bernal, who shopped at the outlets this weekend. "It's just nice to see something like this coming to Kern County."

But with opening day comes the headache of long lines and crowded walk ways.

"H&M for example, on grand opening day... half-hour wait to get into the store, half-hour to the dressing room, and half-hour to check out," said Barry Zoeller, a Tejon Ranch spokesman.

But the long lines didn't stop Debbie Vickers from traveling all the way from Pasadena just to check out the new outlet.

"The prices are good and you know, we don't really have a lot of big outlets there, so I'm really happy to be here," Vickers said.

And retailers like Coach were also exceeding expectations - almost selling out of merchandise before the grand opening.

"One store said they did triple what they expected to do," said Zoeller. "It was the greatest soft opening in the company's history."

http://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/outlets-at-tejon-beat-expectations-bring-in-thousands-of-kern-county-residents-081014