Shoppers swarm malls eyeing Furbies to high fashions

Robert Macy

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 12:51 p.m.

Tens of thousands of mall-minded shoppers swarmed elegant boutiques and discount stores, zeroing in on holiday gifts ranging from Furbies to high fashions.

"We've had unbelievable crowds," Maureen Crampton, marketing director of the posh Forum Shops at Caesars, said Friday.

Across town, at a local Wal-Mart store, people began lining up at 3 a.m. for the 6 a.m. opening of the discount store.

Crampton estimated some 70,000 people visited the upscale Forum Shops on Thursday.

"We're the only shopping center, to my knowledge, that was open on Thanksgiving Day," Crampton said. "That's because we're physically connected to a 24-hour casino."

The center is connected to the Caesars Palace hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Some 226,000 visitors are expected in the city for the holiday weekend.

At the trendy FAO Schwarz toy store in the Forum Shops, as at the Wal-Mart store, shoppers were scrambling for the elusive Furbies - this year's furry, bug-eyed toy of choice.

A recorded message at the Schwarz store said it was sold out of Furbies and no longer taking orders.

Doug Spear, public relations manager of the Las Vegas FAO Schwarz, said the store quit taking orders after it reached a backlog of 3,000 requests.

At Wal-Mart, the early shoppers quickly snatched up the Furby supply.

"We had a bunch, but we didn't have enough," said Ron Lecero, Wal-Mart store manager. He said his store had "more than 100" Furbies, declining to be more specific, and was scrambling to get more.

Furby-mania was one of the reasons for Friday's shopper crunch at the discount store. More than 2,000 people had lined up to get in the store by the time the doors opened at dawn.

"When we unlocked the doors there was a rush," Lecero said. "We had called police to make sure that nothing happened. We had a lot of people yelling, people trying to push their way through, but no one got hurt."