Shop 'Til You Drop

Brian C. agrees with me: this week is virtually a regional holiday for shop-a-holics.

Last Friday, Northwest favorite Nordstrom opened, and we made it there Saturday. Just as nice as I expected, if you ignore the way-too-over-enthusastic salespeople in Men's Fragrances. For future reference, "I'm just looking" doesn't mean "please, pester me some more."

Sunday, I had access to a "sneak preview" of the new Macy's at the new Mall at Millenia. This is Orlando's first 3-story department store from what I can tell " although it appears that sister store and co-anchor Bloomingdale's will also be three floors. It did strike me that the aisles in Nordstrom are nice and wide, whereas the ones in Macy's were far to narrow for the crowds, and the mall itself doesn't even open until this Friday.

Speaking of Millenia, I get daily updates on progress, as Dan is opening one of the stores there. Funniest tale: the mall public spaces are still off-limits to everyone — even mall employees. Problem is, his store doesn't have a key hole on their service entrance (company policy is to enter and exit the store only through the front gate). So until the mall officially opens, whoever is the opening or closing manager has to wait for mall security to walk by, and then dash either to the mall exit or the store's gate. Says he: "The rent-a-cops aren't expecting us to actually run." Makes one wish for a webcam.