Westfield Century City Mall Gunman Incident. Gelson's not allowed to reopen same day

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CalItalian
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Westfield Century City Mall Gunman Incident. Gelson's not allowed to reopen same day

Post by CalItalian »

Westfield really screwed their tenants at the end of the incident today. Even though the mall was cleared by LAPD nearly 5 hours after the incident started and everyone was allowed back in the mall - mostly to retrieve their vehicles - about 5:30 pm, Westfield would not allow anyone to reopen including Gelson's which wanted to. Pretty unfair.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/loca ... 12881.html
http://www.foxla.com/news/local-news/po ... -city-mall
rwsandiego
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Re: Westfield Century City Mall Gunman Incident. Gelson's not allowed to reopen same day

Post by rwsandiego »

Particularly since there was no gunman or suspicious package.
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Re: Westfield Century City Mall Gunman Incident. Gelson's not allowed to reopen same day

Post by CalItalian »

Ralphs Fresh Fare on Olympic Blvd. just west of Century Park West had their biggest day in history. Hundreds of people from the mall, both employees and guests of the mall, walked there and hung out for hours since they couldn't get their vehicles or go into the mall. There are not a lot of food options within walking distance. Walgreens, McDonald's a few blocks west on Santa Monica Blvd and Ralphs Fresh Fare about 1/2 mile to the south on Olympic Blvd. are the biggest.

Gelson's employees who came back to the store just after the incident started (12:40 pm) and after the LAPD told them to lock the doors (just after 1 pm), were not allowed back into the store even if they were returning from a break by LAPD order even though the were outside Gelson's doors. Employees and customers tried to leave via a Gelson's backdoor but the LAPD said no and both customers and employees had to camp out for a few hours inside the store until the LAPD came to escort them out. Nobody that had purchased groceries was allowed to take them by LAPD's orders. Lots of people left behind groceries, bags, purses and they couldn't retrieve them even though employees were let back in the store after 5:30 pm (because of Westfield's orders). I saw one guy who was at Macy's and was trying on clothes, still had security tags on and couldn't get his wallet or car keys even after 5:30 pm. That is on Westfield and pretty poor policy.

Gelsons's lost quite a bit of fresh product that day, too.
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