Malfunctioning equipment left part of Valley Hills Mall without electricity for about three hours Monday, but the power of darkness couldn't stop the shopping.
The parking lot remained packed and traffic on U.S. 70 backed up as drivers made their way to the entrance.
Belk and about a third of the smaller stores in the mall lost power around 11:15 a.m., said Mike Ruddy, the mall's general manager. Crews from Duke Power managed to bypass a faulty switch and restore electricity around 2:30 p.m., Ruddy said. All the shops were then able to open.
The mall's other large department stores and its remaining stores kept the doors open for the holiday rush.
"It's never good to lose your power, but it's especially bad the week leading up to Christmas," Ruddy said.
The equipment failure came on the heels of a snowy weekend that kept some shoppers home. Valley Hills Mall opened two hours late, at 10 a.m., Saturday. It never lost power because of the storm.
A year ago today, the mall suffered a similar power failure that darkened Belk, the food court and other stores on the east side of the building. A defective electrical switch caused the 2008 failure, too.
Having good weather and keeping the doors open is a matter of survival for businesses, especially in today's economy, said Danny Hearn, president of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce.
"A snow or a power outage, that's like kicking you while you're down," he said. "I saw the snow and I said, 'My goodness, of all the times.' It's just another chapter to a story here that I wish would end."
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