5 Reasons Why Shoppers Love Roosevelt Field
In a survey of about 30 people, shoppers explained why they love shopping at the Roosevelt Field Mall located in Garden City, NY.

The survey consisted of two questions: Why they love shopping at the Roosevelt Field Mall and whether or not they would recommend the mall to a friend.

Here were the top 5 reasons why people shopped at Roosevelt Field:

1. It's convenient 

2. It's location: The mall is located in Nassau County, making it easily accessible for those who live in the Queens area and also Suffolk County.

3. The atmosphere: 

4. The service: 

5. The food court: The food court has a lot of variety of foods. There is American food, Chinese food, Indian Food, Italian food, the popular fast food stores, and much more. 

Here is a podcast of an interview with one shopper, Alesha Ali, 15, from Levittown. 

Links:

Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

An Angel Has Landed

Victoria's Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel posing

Victoria Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel made an appearance yesterday at the Victoria's Secret store at the Roosevelt Field Mall. From 6-8 p.m., she was there for a meet and greet with her fans. Swanepoel was not the only one there yesterday. She brought along the 10 million dollar fantasy bra with her too. 

In addition to the South African supermodel and the 10 million dollar masterpiece, there were 6 body guards, 4 police officers, her personal assistants, a full camera crew, and about a dozen members from the Victoria's Secret corporate office, not to mention the managers and employees of the store too. 

The event had been publicized through flyers, on Roosevelt Field Mall's Facebook page, Swanepoel's instagram post, "tweet" on Twitter, and through the word of mouth. Hundreds of fans lined up as early as 4 p.m. "Tomorrow @ Roosevelt field Mall NY. ❤️ @victoriassecret #candiceswanepoel," wrote Swanepoel on her twitter account on December 4th.

The event consisted of a meet and greet with Swanepoel and free makeovers. Many people stopped by just to get a glance of the supermodel and pose for pictures next to the 10 million dollar bra.

The $10 million dollar fantasy bra worn at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

For those of you wondering about the bra, it is the most expensive bra ever created. It is made of 18-cart gold, 4,200 Swarovski crystal gems, and a 52 carat pear shaped ruby. It was custom made for Swanepoel herself and is now owned by a woman. It was displayed in a case with two guards next to it. 

The annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will air on CBS on December 10th. Be sure to check out Swanepoel on the runway at 8pm. 

Links:

Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

Black Friday 2013

It was the craziest shopping day of the year. Shoppers lined up and waited outside their favorite stores in anticipation of the "Black Friday" deals. Many stores such as Macy's and JcPenney opened at 8pm last night on Thanksgiving. However some other stores like Black House|White Market, Louis Vuitton, and Victoria's Secret stayed stayed closed until midnight. Nicole Drozdowski, Victoria's Secret store manager said "it was hard to stay closed, but I got them to close those doors for one more year."  


Stores were so packed with people on every corner that mall security had to manage the number of people that occupied every store. Many people waited 
outside stores just to get in. "It's complete madness," said one shopper, Nicole Schnyman, 22, of Garden City.



Check out some pictures that people posted on Instagram:
Photo Credits: (Top Left) sofakingfantastic, (Top Right) filli_, (Bottom Left) heavyjet, (Bottom Right) spitfire9995

 
 

Links:

Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

   

Donate to The Salvation Army at Roosevelt Field

The Salvation Army charity fund has come back once again for the holiday season to collect donations for the Salvation Army. 

According to the their mission statement, The Salvation Army is an "international movement...an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination."

There are two ways to donate. You can drop off money in a bucket or adopt a child off "The Angel Tree." The angel tree matches donors with a child from a family who can not afford gifts and clothing for the holidays. You can also donate on their website here: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org.

Donator Annelise Boteca, 28, from Hempstead said "it's for a good cause and just a little bit goes a long way."

You too can help others this holiday season by donating to the Salvation Army. They are zoned outside Roosevelt Field Mall's main entrances. A collector will most likely be ringing a bell and you can drop off your donations in a red bucket. 

Links:

The Salvation Army Website: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org

Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

Roosevelt Field Mall Parking Issue: Employees Outraged

As the holidays are approaching, there are more people coming into the mall to shop. As a result, parking has become an issue. Mall employees are now being forced to park on the upper level or lower level (basement) of the parking garage or behind a yellow line in the parking lots. The yellow line is about 200 feet away from the mall entrance. 

According to mall security, the purpose of this parking rule is to "accommodate shoppers" and make it a better shopping experience for them for the holidays. But mall employees are not very happy about this. Many mall employees are outraged by the new parking restrictions. "It's ridiculous! most of the employees here are the biggest shoppers." said Andrea Gonzales, a mall employee.

If employees don't obey this new rule, they are subject to be fined or have their car towed.  Mall security is tracking down employees and leaving notes that there car will be towed if they don't park behind the yellow line. 

One mall employee was followed by three security officers because she did not park in the "right spot." So, she was pulled out of her shift and instructed to move her car. 

This new parking rule for employees has been in effect for about a week and will stay in effect until the end of the holidays.

Links:

Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

Santa arrives at Roosevelt Field

It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas at Roosevelt Field. Not only has the Christmas tree gone up but the mall started playing Christmas music too. And now, Santa has arrived! 

Today marked the first day of "Photos with Santa." Mall visitors can have their photos taken with Santa and the Christmas Tree set located on the main level in the North Court. 

"I like to bring my kids and my husband every year since we got married. It's nice, you know," said Nicole Gillin, 29, of Oceanside.  

You can get your photo taken with Santa too by standing on line or making an appointment. If you don't have time to wait on the long lines in the mall, click here to make an appointment:  htpp://simon.com.noerrsanta.com

Here are the dates and times that Santa will be available for photos: (According to the Facebook Roosevelt Field Mall fan page)

Santa Hours of Operation:
Friday 11/8: 10am-9pm, Cookies with Santa 4pm-6pm 
Saturday 11/9: 10am-9pm 
Sunday 11/10: 11am-7pm 
Monday 11/11: 10am-9pm 
Tuesday 11/12: 10am-9pm 
Wednesday 11/13: 10am-9pm 
Thursday 11/14: 10am-9pm 
Friday 11/15: 10am-9pm 
Saturday 11/16: 10am-9pm 
Sunday 11/17: 10am-8pm, Pet Photo Night 7pm-9pm 
Monday 11/18: 10am-9pm
Tuesday 11/19: 10am-9pm 
Wednesday 11/20: 10am-9pm 
Thursday 11/21: 10am-9pm 
Friday 11/22: 9am-9pm 
Saturday 11/23: 9am-9pm 
Sunday 11/24: 10am-8pm 
Monday 11/25: 10am-9pm 
Tuesday 11/26: 10am-9pm 
Wednesday 11/27: 10am-9pm 
Thursday 11/28: Closed 
Friday 11/29: 9am-9:30pm 
Saturday 11/30: 9am-9:30pm 
Sunday 12/1: 10am-8:30pm 
Monday 12/2: 10am-9pm 
Tuesday 12/3: 10am-9pm 
Wednesday 12/4: 10am-9pm 
Thursday 12/5: 9am-9pm 
Friday 12/6: 9am-9:30pm 
Saturday 12/7: 9am-9:30pm 
Sunday 12/8: 10am-8:30pm 
Monday 12/9: 9am-9:30pm 
Tuesday 12/10: 9am-9:30pm 
Wednesday 12/11: 9am-9:30pm 
Thursday 12/12: 9am-9:30pm 
Friday 12/13: 9am-9:30pm 
Saturday 12/14: 9am-9:30pm 
Sunday 12/15: 10am-8:30pm 
Monday 12/16: 9am-9:30pm 
Tuesday 12/17: 9am-9:30pm 
Wednesday 12/18: 9am-9:30pm 
Thursday 12/19: 9am-9:30pm 
Friday 12/20: 9am-9:30pm 
Saturday 12/21: 9am-9:30pm 
Sunday 12/22: 9am-8:30pm 
Monday 12/23: 9am-9:30pm 
Tuesday 12/24: 8am-6pm

Links:

Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

Superfoods a la Cart Closing Down


Superfoods a la Cart is officially shutting down by the end of this week. The canteen stand opened up about six weeks ago but will now close down because "it just didn't bring in a lot of business," according to manager Dana Herrera. 

The shop has marked down all chips to 50 cents and all drinks to 90 cents. Everything else is now 50 percent off. 

The Superfoods a la Cart brand is famous for carrying the only cereal that is organic and gluten free. In fact, all of their products including chips, cookies, fruit snacks, and nuts are gluten free and organic. 

One customer is not too happy about this store closing. Mariam Durzi, a mall employee was saddened when she heard the stand was closing down. "I like to eat healthy and this was the only place in the mall that had things that were organic," said Durzi.

Superfoods a la Cart canteen stand before closing.

Links:
Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

The Christmas Tree is up at Roosevelt Field

The Christmas Tree has officially been put up at the North Court in the Roosevelt Field Mall. The process took only one day to complete. 

Shoppers took pictures of the tree as it was being assembled and posted it on Instagram. With the #rooseveltfield hashtag, one can see all the different pictures people have shared. 

Many captions and comments show that people are surprised that the tree is up so soon. "What. The. F***. It's October." wrote one person. What do you think? Was it too soon for the Christmas Tree to go up? 

Here are a few pictures that onlookers have shared via Instagram: 

Photo Credits: Chapinaliita (Top Left), ther00per021807 (Top Right), theshteph (Bottom Left), ther00per021807 (Bottom Right)

Chipotle Opens at Roosevelt Field

Photo Credit: Google Images (businessinsider.com)

After weeks of anticipation, Chipotle has finally opened up at Roosevelt Field. The Mexican grill opened up earlier this week and is located on the main floor next to Build a Bear Workshop and across from Skinny Pizza near JcPenney. 

Chipotle is a popular Mexican grill chain that specializes in burritos and tacos. The new restaurant has given shoppers and employees another food option and other food chains such as Taco Bell some competition. 

Many mall employees are very excited about this new addition. "I spend a lot of time working here [Roosevelt Field Mall] and am tired of the food options, so I'm very happy that Chipotle is here," said Joaquin Villalobos, a Express and Victoria's Secret employee. 

The restaurant is open Monday through Sunday from 10am to 9:30pm. The phone number for this location is (516) 539-3950. For more information on the opening visit, www.simon.com/mall/roosevelt-field/stores/chipotle-mexican-grill

Links:
Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

Simon Fashion Now Event Day 2

The Simon Fashion Now event continued and finished it's sixth annual show earlier today. Today was the last day of the Simon Fashion Now tour here in New York. The show is now moving to Charlotte, NC. Roosevelt Field was the fourth of five locations where the tour took place. The tour began in September and will end on October 19. 

Jacqué Ellis, the vice president of Simon Corporate Special Events, spoke a little about the Simon Fashion Now Tour and talked about her experience in putting on these shows across the country. She said, "what's fun about that is different personalities and how people interpret the trends and fashions, while the shows are very similar, how people chose to translate those trends that vary from market to market."

The sequence of events was similar to yesterday's events. Today's events consisted of more high energy runway fashion shows, giveaways, food samplings, and two competitions: model for a minute and ready, set, style! 

Model for a minute involved four volunteers from the audience, two men and two women (over age 18), who had to compete against one another walking down the runway for a minute. 

Ready, set, style! was a interactive styling competition where two volunteers picked a partner from the audience and worked together to accessorize two models. The models only wore a solid shirt and jeans and the contestants had to accessorize them by picking out from a selection of bags, scarves, jewelry, belts and shoes.

The winners for both competitions were chosen by the audience. Whoever got the most cheer and applause won. The prizes included gift cards valued from $25 to $100. 

In addition, like yesterday, there were giveaways and winners were picked from a raffle every hour.

Today's runway fashion shows featured looks from JcPenney, Macy's, Franchesca's Collections, adidas, White House | Black Market, Lucky Brand, Wet Seal, Tilly's, bebe, GUESS and more. All of the looks presented were readily available at the retailers in the mall.

Follow the Roosevelt Field Mall on twitter @RooseveltField or like their page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField to keep in touch with future events. 



Take a look below for photos, footage from the runway and the full interview with Jacqué Ellis.

Retail store display

Guests trying Superfoods a la Cart samples.

Attendees learning about different retail offers and trying samples.

Pre- runway show setup

Guests entering their names for the hourly giveaways

                                                             Footage of the runway shows.

                        Interview with the vice president of Simon Corporate Special Events, Jacqué Ellis.

 Simon Fashion Now Event Day 1

Day 1 of the Simon Fashion Now Event kicked off yesterday with a full day filled with shows, competitions, previews, raffles, prizes, and much more. The event was presented by Winthrop University Hospital Breast Health Center. The purpose of the event was to celebrate style and showcase the must-have trends for fall from fashionable retailers of the Roosevelt Field Mall. I had the opportunity to experience the event first hand with a media pass. 

Hundreds of people lined up to register for the event and the first 250 people who registered were awarded with a free swag bag. Among the hundreds in attendance were two friends, Alexa Brancazio and Zoe Allain of Baldwin who came out to the mall specially for this event. The girls dedicated their time to watch all of the shows. "We have been here all day and it's been a lot of fun," said Brancazio.

The event began at 1pm with Design Wars, a design competition where fashion students from Nassau Community College were given the task to create "fashionable art" inspired by pieces and collections of famous artists. Eight students presented their work on the runway in hopes of winning top design honors. Eight models, between the ages of 16 and 21, from the Long Island Arts Alliance's Scholar Artist program modeled the designs.

Later at 6pm was the Trend and Friends Night event which included presentations of fall looks, product displays, and interactive style and beauty consultations from Roosevelt Field Mall retailers. A few retailers that took part in this were Aveda, Bare Minerals, Caché, The Body Shop and more. Guests of the event were also treated with free ice cream and samples of foods from Auntie Anne's, Bobby's Burger Palace, Havana Central, La Bottega and Season's 52.

The night comprised of two fashion shows. The first show featured fabulous fall fashion looks from Bloomingdales which took place from 6:30-7:30 pm. The second show consisted of looks from many other retailers such as Ann Taylor, Bachrach, Carlo Pazolini, C.Wonder, Everything but Water, Joe Fresh, Juicy Couture, Nike and Robert Graham.

During this event, guests had the opportunity to participate in fundraising elements in effort to benefit Long Island Arts Alliance (LIAA).

There were also many opportunities for guests to participate and win prizes. There were prizes raffled away every hour and participants of the challenges were given gift cards. The entire event was open to the public and was free of charge.

Follow the Roosevelt Field Mall on twitter @RooseveltField or like their page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField to keep in touch with future events. 

Check out the photos and video footage from the event below:

People wait in line to register for the event

Attendees Zoe Allain (left) and Alexa Brancazio (right) of Baldwin

Guests sampling desserts from Season's 52

Video Footage:

                                                  Opening of Trends and Friends Night Event

                                                   Bloomingadales Fashion Show Footage

ZARA Store Re-opening

After months of renovations, ZARA has finally re-opened at the Roosevelt Field Mall today. The high street fashion store is located on the first floor next to Black House|White Market. 

The newly renovated store has a new addition: there is a children's department that wasn't available before. Customers can now shop for men, women, and kids all in one place.

One shopper shared her excitement for the store opening. "I am super excited that Zara has finally opened. I can now shop for my nephew's clothes here," said Erica Taylor. Before the renovation, the kids department was only available at the Manhattan location and online.

Shoppers of the company had the option to shop online or at the Manhattan location while it was under renovation.

The store hours for Monday through Saturday are from 10am to 9:30pm and 11am to 7pm on Sundays. 

Links:
Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField

Zara's Website: www.zara.com

Update: More details on the Roosevelt Field Mall Area Shooting

Several hours have past since the shooting and the suspect, who police have identified as Sang Ho Kim, is yet to be found and the manhunt is still on. The Roosevelt Field Mall and other nearby highways and schools have been given clearance to open since 3pm.

I visited the mall at approximately 5pm where many different media channels were gathered and reporting in front of Akbar restaurant. Many people could be seen waiting at the bus stop and parking lots were pretty empty. Inside the mall, there were a few people shopping. The lighting in the mall was dimmed and the atmosphere was quieter than usual. 

Some stores such as Macys, Au Bon Pain, H&M and Essentials opened up while others like Victoria's Secret and Lush remained closed for the rest of the day. 

To recap the events that happened this morning, this is what had happened. At around 10AM, Kim went into Savenergy located on 645 South Street in East Garden City and opened fire and shot 2 people, according to News 12 Long Island's website. Kim reportedly shot the CEO and owner of the savenergy business and another employee and then fled in a white Honda Pilot. The employee died earlier today and the CEO is in critical condition receiving surgery at Nassau University Medical Center.

Kim was a former employee at the business and was upset over some business deals which may had led him to this incident according to police reports. Steven Skrynecki, the Nassau County Chief of Department said that the Kim is not a threat to the community but he is dangerous.

Representatives from the mall have been updating people on the reports throughout the day through their Facebook page.

Links:
Roosevelt Field Mall Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RooseveltField?hc_location=stream

Roosevelt Field Mall Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/RooseveltField