Shoppers From Mexico Flock to Tucson Malls
 Bud Foster - KOLD
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| | "More cheaper, more things and stuff," says a shopper from Hermosillo in her broken English. |
Twenty-five years ago, Tucson families would pack the car for the holidays and head to Mexico to buy cheap Mexican products.
My how things have changed.
Now, Mexican families pack the car for the holidays and head to the Tucson malls to buy cheaper American products.
"More cheaper, more things and stuff," says a shopper from Hermosillo in her broken English.
The Foothills Mall parking lot is full of cars from Sonora, Mexico as shoppers brave the ever tighter border security to shop here.
"I buy clothes, shoes, electronic products, like ipods, video games. They're cheaper here and better," says Ivan Encinas, a teenager from Hermosillo, who speaks pretty good English.
It's hard to say just how many dollars the Mexican shopper pumps into the Tucson economy but it can easily be hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
That's a fact not lost on the Foothills Mall, which makes four or five trips to Mexico each year to market its 90 stores.
"It represents us well to mix and mingle with our customers down there and remind them that we're here," says Mary Stahl, the marketing director from the Foothills Mall.
She knows the Mexican traffic can be the difference between a good year and a great year. Which is why it's important the consumer brave the ever growing tighter security at the border, sometimes waiting in long lines.
"They're making that effort, they're coming up anyway. They're waiting in long lines because it's worth the time to come to the United States to shop," says Stahl.
Worth it, it seems, on both sides of the border and has many shop owners in Tucson saying, "Feliz Navidad." |
Vallarta Weddings
Business News | November 2007 
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