With the holiday season upon us, military families are looking for the best deals and easiest accessibility to stores to do their holiday shopping.

The Lakewood Towne Center offers military families a safe, one-stop, shopping experience.

Not only is the center military friendly, but it is also a place where shoppers can find most anything on their holiday shopping lists.

“Military families should shop here because not only can you get most anything you need, you can shop without dealing with finding a parking spot in the mall lot, and you can avoid the very heavy mall traffic in the stores,” Monika Armstrong, the property manager said.

After being redecorated in 2004, the shopping complex was named the Lakewood Towne Center.  Some of the stores in the center include: Target, Barnes & Noble, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Famous Footwear, Michael’s and Pier I Imports.

In close proximity to McChord and Fort Lewis, the center is military friendly, Armstrong said.

For starters, several of the stores offer military discounts.  Old Navy offers 10 percent off to all military the first weekend of every month.  And the Dress Barn offers a VIP program where random or pre-determined days are declared military appreciation days, Armstrong said.

“It’s really a lot of fun,” Armstrong said. “Dress Barn’s program is like a raffle.  You might walk in one day and they say today is a military appreciation day. 

Sometimes they tell us in advance, and other times they just do it.”

Secondly, about 80 percent of the customers are military, and many of the employees are military spouses, she said.

Thirdly, the center is supportive of the troops who are deployed.

During the holiday season the center will be collecting toys for military families, Armstrong said.  On Dec. 4, KGY radio will be broadcasting live, and toys collected will be donated to military families with deployed parents, she said.

Later, on Dec. 19, 100.7 The Wolf will do a live remote, which will include story time with Santa. During this time, items will be collected that will be donated to members the 4th Stryker Brigade, which was adopted by the center.  The collected items will be sent to the Strykers to help them get through their deployment, Armstrong noted.

“We need to do what we can to support the troops,” she said. “The managers in the center do what they can to help.”

Finally, the center’s store managers are very customer oriented, Armstrong remarked.
“Our store managers cater to customers, year round,” she said.