Happening now: Westwood Village trick-or-treating

| Holidays | West Seattle news | Westwood

Till 7 pm, you can join this year’s final round of business-area trick-or-treating fun at Westwood Village. We wandered over during the first hour for a look at both the littlest trick-or-treaters …

… and the most-macabre treat-hander-out’ers (this next scene was from Fresh Vitamins):

Look who wound up in Westwood, perhaps taking a wrong turn on his way back to Springfield:

Also welcoming trick-or-treaters this afternoon were White Center businesses; photos are up on partner site White Center Now.

alkimom October 31, 2010 (8:07 pm)

Got there at 5:30 and only 6 of the business still had candy left. 6! My kids were so dissapointed. All the stores had “ran out of candy” signs taped to their doors. I spend my money at marshals regularly (out of candy) $180 at wyatts last month (not even participating) target at least $2000 a year (no candy). I think I’m going to tape a “ran out of money to spend at local business ” on my debit card. Kudos to barnes and noble for the posters ! Awesome and plenty for all the kids.

DV October 31, 2010 (10:02 pm)

I agree. We got there at 5:45 and many stores were out of candy. Lame. Next time will go elsewhere.

dr.moxie November 1, 2010 (9:50 am)

We showed up around 4:10 and by 4:40 most of the stores were out. And some of the offerings from the stores were pretty paltry – for instance, Target was giving out bullseye stickers – nothing even that said “happy halloween.” The merchants at the Junction on Saturday seemed much more into the trick-or-treat mood, despite the rain and crowds.

We’ll definitely plan on leaving Westwood out of our Halloween plans next year.

WyattsJewelers November 1, 2010 (9:54 am)

alkimom-Sorry to have missed you on Sunday!
The store is not open on Sundays & we were spending time with our kids.
(…always a balancing act between running a small business & making family time).

We hear you:) Will pass your feedback about lack of candy on to the event organizer.
And we’ll make sure we are open (with plenty of treats) next year!

HolyKow November 1, 2010 (1:34 pm)

Gotta throw in here as well…it really seemed like the businesses were forced to participate and did the bare minimum to get the corporate landlords that foisted this upon them off of their backs.

I can understand some mis-estimation on the candy count for the little ghost and gobblins if you run out in the last hour…but this little suarez was to have been from 4P to 7P and almost all of the stores that were handing out candy (lookin’ at u target..TARGET STICKERS?! REALLY?! Boooooooo (and not the scarry boo…like Mariners Baseball 2010 Boooooooo)) were all out by….wait for it…. 4:45P!!! That is 45 minutes into a 3 hour event and that makes it 2 hours and 15 minutes of disappointment after disappointment for the kids, the supposed focus of the event.

So, Westwood, unless you intend to actually have an Event instead of a Disappointment, please do not bother next year. I know we won’t…

Thanks (for literally nothin’!)
HK

Donna B November 1, 2010 (8:34 pm)

Hey Everyone – Giannoni’s Pizza here – we made 2 runs to Target after we ran out of candy so I hope you were all taken care of on our end.
As far as the whole event goes – I gave property management my feedback this morning which is much like yours above. It’s frustrating for some of us vendors as well. I paid 2 employees to come in at 3:45, dressed up to give out pizza samples and candy outside of our shop. Imagine how frustrated I was when the trick or treating started at 3:30 in other stores – and then several people cursing at us and yelling in my store when I told them “we’re starting at 4 today :)” And we were really busy! I knew from years past experience that the stores would run out, so I was irritated that other stores started early. The mall management generously gives the stores candy to pass out but we all know it’s never enough. I think we have to commit to doing the entire event (whatever it takes) or not participating. I also recommended that we change the end time from 7 to 6pm.
It kills me to read negative comments above and I really want Westwood Village to be a positive experience at all times. I truly apologize for the mistakes of others. The corporate store vs. privately owned store battle happens often on many levels. I understand completely that you made the effort to come down, I have kids too, and were disappointed. Please feel free to offer suggestions and I will gladly pass them on.
By the way – Target is not part of Westwood Village property, so they technically are not part of the event. (You would think that they, of all of us, would have the candy to spare…)

Bob A. Bowie November 2, 2010 (11:53 am)

Support Giannoni’s Pizza!

josie2006 November 3, 2010 (8:01 am)

Thanks for the post Giannoni’s…we showed up at 4:30 to mostly no candy like others. Few decorations, clearly little to no effort by the property overall. Thanks to the businesses who did participate though! Will probably not go back next year, but when I looked online for some sort of contact info for the property owners to give some feedback, I couldn’t find anything. Anyone know how to find them online?

WSB November 3, 2010 (8:05 am)

http://www.wesbild.com/properties/shopping-centers/westwood-village

JA November 8, 2010 (5:28 pm)

I echo the thanks to the few businesses that really put an effort into it – and the boos to the majority that appeared to find the whole event annoying. (One tiny jolly rancher hard candy from bed bath & beyond? Many stores out of candy at 4:30? Why are you even bothering?) The whole experience made me glad we participated in the admiral treats & treasures earlier in the weekend, because otherwise the whole trick-or-treat at the stores thing would have been pretty depressing. For about $50 in candy, these businesses could have earned a ton of loyalty and goodwill from happy parents and kids, but most of them blew it. I say go back to the neighborhoods for real trick or treating and let the stores off the hook from participating in something they obviously have no interest in doing.

Sorry, comment time is over.