Just after 5:00 p.m. Wednesday the lights came back on at the Christiana Mall, but for much of the day, much of the mall was dark and it was not the first power outage at the mall this holiday season.
Shoppers used the works "darkness" and "desolate" to describe the mall when they arrived throughout the day.
About a 100 stores were dark, closed and locked. Some restaurants and the food court shut down because of a power outage that started at 10:00 a.m.
"All the smaller stores. The major stores all have power," Cathy Skinner of Lewisville, Pa. said.
The anchor stores like Target, JCPenney, Nordstrom get power from a different source and stayed open.
DelMarva crews worked in the parking lot all day to repair the line that supplies power to the smaller retailers.
Back on Black Friday, the same power source failed, but only for about 45 minutes.
Today's outage went on for hours, a major inconvenience for those looking to do tax-free shopping.
"I actually came here hoping to get something, but not today," Omar Lewis of West Philadelphia said.
"I wanted to get this really cute ring at Forever 21, but they're closed, and I can't get Chick-Fil-A. Such a waste," Janay Barron of Wilmington said.
Mall management said at this point there's no way to measure the financial impact of a day of lost sales at the height of the holiday shopping season.
"It's a few hours in the scheme of another 15 days. The kids are in school today so it's not the busiest day of the season, but it is holiday shopping, obviously so we are concerned," Steve Chambliss of the Christiana Mall said.
Shoppers looked around in the darkness and felt sure today's blackout would have an impact on the bottom line.
"This is very bad. I spent a number of years in retail management. This is probably the worst nightmare," John Becker of Bear, Delaware said.
Mall management was encouraging shoppers to come out later tonight now that the lights are back on.
