DESOTO SQUARE MALL CELEBRATES MOMS

AT NATIONAL MOM’S NITE OUT ON MAY 5

FREE event to a beauty bar, style presentations, shopping incentives & more

BRADENTON, Fla. (April 20, 2011) —  DeSoto Square Mall invites moms to let their hair down at the 3^rd Annual National Mom’s Nite Out on Thursday, May 5 from 5 p.m.to 8 p.m. This free event is a guilt-free excuse for moms to take the night off to relax and enjoy a celebration of motherhood. Mom’s Nite Out at DeSoto Square Mall is sponsored by VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation.

 

Moms will join together for a well-deserved break to socialize and relax at this event featuring a Beauty Bar, a Candy Bar, social networking, fun interactive activities, style presentations, food and beverages, shopping incentives, giveaways and more.

 

Mom’s Nite Out at DeSoto Square Mall will feature Manatee Memorial Hospital as a registered sponsor of the event this year.

 

“DeSoto Square Mall is the perfect place to thank and celebrate mothers for all that they do,” said Lauren Clark, director of marketing and business development, DeSoto Square Mall. “We absolutely believe that moms deserve some pampering and we are delighted to play a part in facilitating this special evening.”

 

“As consumer confidence returns, families are starting to add the experience of a shared vacation back into their budgets,” said Will Seccombe, Chief Marketing Officer for VISIT FLORIDA. “Now, more than ever, it’s important for us to remind families about all there is to see and do in the Sunshine State. Partnering with Simon Property Group on the Mom’s Night Out program is a tremendous opportunity to encourage thousands of travel planning decision makers to Share A Little Sunshine with their family and friends.”

Fifteen million moms are expected to take part in this national event. Moms across the United States will unite in celebrating motherhood with each other via local and national events as well as cyber celebrations. Organized by Maria Bailey, CEO of BSM Media, author and Mom Talk Radio host, National Mom’s Nite Out unites social media groups, companies, local playgroups, mom bloggers and networks in giving moms a well-deserved night off. Bailey organized the first National Mom’s Nite Out after watching moms take care of everyone else on Mother’s Day, but never themselves.

 

“We created National Mom’s Nite Out because so many of today’s mothers spend Mother’s Day focused on catering to the needs of others” said Maria Bailey, National Mom’s Nite Out organizer and mother of four. “We decided that moms deserve one night off from cooking, cleaning and responsibility and need time to celebrate motherhood with each other.”

 

Simon Property Group is hosting National Mom’s Nite Out at 115 of its malls across the country. All activities are free and open to moms of all ages.

About DeSoto Square

DeSoto Square, Manatee County’s only enclosed shopping mall, features anchor stores Macy’s, JCPenney and Sears, as well as more than 80 popular specialty stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale and Finish Line. Conveniently located at the intersection of U.S. 301 Blvd. West and U.S. 41, the mall is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Sunday noon – 6 p.m. For more information, including extended holiday hours, please call (941) 747-5868.

About Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc. is an S&P 500 company and the largest real estate company in the U.S. The Company currently owns or has an interest in 392 retail real estate properties comprising 263 million square feet of gross leasable area in North America, Europe and Asia. Simon Property Group is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and employs more than 5,000 people worldwide. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol SPG. For further information, visit the Simon Property Group website at www.simon.com.

 

About Manatee Memorial Hospital:

Manatee Memorial Hospital is a 319-bed acute care facility that is owned by a subsidiary of one of the most respected hospital management companies in the country, Universal Health Services, Inc. The hospital has served the Manatee County area for over 57 years and strives to provide a comfortable and convenient environment for each patient. Patients have access to wide array of services ranging from family medicine and pediatric care to vascular surgery and behavioral health services. With over 400 physicians and a staff of highly skilled and motivated nurses, Manatee Memorial Hospital offers a fully involved patient care team to fit the needs of each patient.

About VISIT FLORIDA:
As the state’s number one industry, tourism is responsible for welcoming more than 80 million visitors each year who spend more than $60 billion, generating 22 percent of the state’s sales tax revenue and employing nearly 1 million Floridians. For every $1 spent on tourism marketing, VISIT FLORIDA – the state’s official tourism marketing corporation – generates more than $147 in tourism spending and $9 in new sales tax collections, paid by visitors, not residents. VISIT FLORIDA promotes tourism to Florida through sales, advertising, promotions, public relations, new product development and visitor services programs. As a public/private partnership, VISIT FLORIDA serves more than 9,500 tourism industry businesses, including 2,900 invested Partners, 6,600 web affiliates and major strategic alliance partnerships with AirTran Airways, American Express Travel Related Services, Disney Destinations, Dollar Rent A Car, The Hertz Corporation, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and Universal Orlando. To learn more about VISIT FLORIDA, go to www.VISITFLORIDA.org or follow our corporate blog at www.sunshinematters.org.
Share a Little Sunshine campaign overview:
‘Share a Little Sunshine’ is a statewide, grassroots tourism advocacy campaign that encourages all Floridians to send a personal e-mail to out-of-state friends and family inviting them to visit the Sunshine State. This social media driven campaign asks Florida residents and fans to do their part to make a positive impact on Florida’s economy, while having fun with friends and loved ones.  By inviting friends and family for a vacation, Floridians can create jobs and positively impact Florida’s economy.

 

I’d love to meet you so please tweet me @MomMaven or follow my tweets and Facebook postings to see where I am during the event.

The post Mom’s Nite Out May 5th appeared first on The Mom Maven.

While I was waiting I heard a woman yell, “Fire!” I turned in the direction of her voice and saw a pillar of flames rising up about 8 feet in the middle of the men’s department. I turned to see if Jordan was entering the store and he wasn’t. I turned back towards the fire and now there are dozens of customers surrounding the men’s department. Suddenly a second pillar of flames shot up toward the ceiling. I turned to the Walmart greeter, who was still just standing their oblivious to what was going on and I said, “There’s a fire in the men’s department call 911.” She steps away from where she was standing, next to a phone, to see for herself before she went back to call 911. I stepped forward and started telling customers to back away from the area-but I couldn’t leave from being in sight of the front door until my son came back in and knew where I was. I turned back to the greeter and ask where the fire extinguishers were and she said, “Don’t worry, they’ll get it.” I wondered, “Who’s they?” There was still no Walmart employee taking charge of this situation.

Jordan entered the store just as a third column of fire stretched up from the men’s department. He asked what was going on because he saw a man run by him with a fire extinguisher. I pointed to the men’s department just as someone was putting out the fires with a fire extinguisher. As the fires were extinguished and the residual smoke rose toward the ceiling the alarm finally went off in Wal-Mart, I would guess maybe 2 minutes from the time the woman yelled, “Fire!” Now that the alarm was going off Walmart employees started yelling at customers to leave the building immediately. Customers who had witnessed the whole thing were wondering why they had to leave now since the fire was out. Other customers were running due to the panic in the voices of the Walmart employees. Customers were leaving their shopping carts by the front door as they fled the store, this made it difficult for others to exit the building. Some customers walked out with what they had in their hands-paid for or not. We saw one man in the parking lot later trying to figure out what to do with a Swiffer Sweeper he had accidentally walked out of the the store with.

We exited the store and stood with the other customers up against the front of the building for about 3 minutes. As we were standing there we witnessed panicked parents yelling at their kids who had separated from them in the store,and a bewildered elderly woman whose daughter was trying to explain why they couldn’t finish shopping Then the fire department showed up. As the emergency vehicles pulled in to the parking lot, Walmart employees told everyone to move away from the building and into the parking lot. Couldn’t they have said that as soon as everyone was exiting the building? Now we had to cross through the parking lot as the emergency vehicles were trying to pull up to the front of the building-it wasn’t very safe. We went to our car and sat marveling at the fact that many employees were congregating under trees in the parking lot smoking while customers were entering the parking lot and not being told the store was closed.

Walmart employees failed on many different levels during this emergency. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes.

• As soon as they heard the woman yell “Fire!” or as soon as they were notified employees should have moved customers out of the area immediately instead of allowing dozens to congregate in the area.
• It should never take minutes for someone to come running from another area with a fire extinguisher. There should be extinguishers in every area and employees should be trained in how to properly extinguish a fire.
• Some one should have been able to manually trigger the alarm-which is what the employees seemed to have been trained to respond to-not the visual evidence of fire!
• The store should have been evacuated quickly and smoothly as soon as the fire was reported. Employees should be trained on how to evacuate the store, some should be by the doors to take customers carts and place them out of the way while others are outside directing customers to the parking lot.
• Once the store is evacuated employees could man the entrances to the parking lot so that customers can leave and no new customers come in while the store is closed.

What can you learn from this?

• Don’t be paranoid but always know where all of the exits are to any building you enter.
• Know where your kids are, even your teens, at all times in a store. If they go off, make sure they have a cell phone so you can contact them in an emergency.
• Stay calm and exit any building in an orderly fashion. Don’t let the panic of others to overtake you.
• Stay out of the way of emergency vehicles and personel. I know this sounds basic but today I was witness to the fact that many people have no common sense.

Stay Safe!

**Update-According to the local news the were were 3 fires set by a disgruntled customer who had been at the customer service counter trying to return some merchandise. He then set the fires and left the store. He was caught 2 hours later trying to return stolen goods to another Walmart in the area.**

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