Speculation over new taxes on the rich contributed to a first-quarter sales slump at Cary Towne Center, in the affluent city of Cary, North Carolina. The solution was “Instant Tax Refund,” a gift-with-purchase program that focused on the benefits of using mall gift certificates as the premium for the promotion.

When Crocker Galleria in San Francisco, California, was approached to assist Project Open Hand prior to their annual food and gift festival fund-raiser, it provided an opportunity for shoppers to participate in a worthwhile community project.

Low birth weights triggered an unusual alliance of business and media in Monterey County, California. Northridge Center initiated the challenge of giving women incentives for using the program’s “Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby” handbooks. The incentives include T-shirts and packets of mall coupons, which are distributed to women who return the completed handbook at the end of each trimester of their pregnancy.

Heritage Mall, with a strong rural and urban market, celebrated its 12th anniversary country-style. Shoppers were invited to participate through a cowboy boot-shaped mailer; recipients could redeem the mailers for one of 2,000 cowboy boot mugs. A “Cash Cowboy” randomly handed out $6,000 in gift certificates, and shoppers could win a trip to Branson, Missouri.

Mall Del Norte hosted a four-day “Shoe Trade-In Sale” during the 1992 back-to-school season. Shoppers could exchange used shoes for $5 towards the purchase of a new pair; the used pairs were then donated to the Salvation Army. The promotion produced an 1,120% return on investment, and compared to the year prior, sales increased 43%.

When the California Restaurant Association approached Broadway Plaza about hosting the Third Annual Bay Area Restaurant Olympics, Marketing Director Kaycee McKenzie saw the potential for increasing the center’s community goodwill. The association and corporate sponsors picked up most of the costs, and around 4,000 people attended the event.

Layton Hills Mall incorporated non-traditional Santas into its holiday set. Five Santas—traditional, frontier, Victorian, Old World, and Father Christmas—alternated daily from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. Shoppers were receptive: photo sales increased 26 percent over the prior year.

Pickering Town Centre and a local radio station sponsored the world’s first Turkey Bungee Jump, benefiting the local food bank. The turkeys were actually rubber chickens, weighted with sand and complete with a red neck ribbon and a rubber medical “bungee” cord, and were dropped from a 42-foot lift in front of 2,000 onlookers.

Londonderry Mall and a local radio station teamed up to present a weekend of sumo wrestling, North American style.

Ogden City Mall transformed its parking terrace into a public gallery of chalk art to draw attention to its lighting and security improvements.