Local retail executives vow weekend great despite mall. (Grapevine Mills mall)

GRAPEVINE - It could have been Black Thursday - the retail equivalent of the stock market drop.

So the grand opening of the new Grapevine Mills mall on Oct. 30 made for some nervous nights for Cindy Thompson, marketing director at Gainesville Factory Shops.

She already knew her outlet center shared some 30 stores with the 1.5-million-square-foot value megamall. And with 200 retail choices at Grapevine Mills and 85 at the Gainesville Factory Shops, she was concerned that the excitement surrounding the new mall would lure her customers away.

"We were anxious for them to open so we could see what they had," said Thompson, who attended the Grapevine mall's opening events. "Now that they're here, we're feeling pretty good."

Thompson was not the …