Day-After Crowds Gladden Retailers From S.D. to N.Y.

For Hiroyuki Sakata of Tokyo the regular prices at Fashion Valley clothing stores would have provided great buys compared to the cost of the same items at home, given the strength of the Japanese yen against the dollar.

Throw in the after-Christmas discounts that began on Saturday, and Sakata found the bargains irresistible, from tennis shoes to aerobic wear.

Even for American shoppers, the after-Christmas sales proved strong lures and they along with Sakata crowded county shopping malls Saturday, providing smiles to merchandisers and consumers alike despite packed parking lots, long lines at cash registers and fierce competition for particular items such as heavily discounted Christmas cards.

The crowds throughout San Diego County were duplicated elsewhere in Southern California, with malls in Los Angeles and Orange counties also reporting heavy traffic. But elsewhere throughout the country, shoppers apparently did not open their pocketbooks as freely, according to national reports.

Biggest Day of Year

In San Diego, Fashion Valley operations manager Rob O’Sullivan reported the biggest day of the year, with heavy crowds even when the first stores opened at 8 a.m.

“It’s been steady all day, and I would not want to try and even buy a parking space,” O’Sullivan said.

“The day has been absolutely fabulous,” Nordstrom store manager Richard Chilcott said. “It’s been quite a bit more in the morning than we thought we would have, much busier than the day after Thanksgiving.”

Chilcott said the fact that the day after Christmas fell on a Saturday this year probably contributed to the strong turnout because most people did not have to go to work.

“People are hitting the sales, especially the men’s department, which is the busiest area today,” he said.

Brought Granddaughter

Haneko Konishi brought her teen-age granddaughter Andee shopping at Nordstrom but could not help but be impressed by the number of shoppers in the men’s department.

“It seems that some people must buy all their dress shirts for the year during sales like this,” she said.

Cashier Dawn Brown at the Highlander men’s store said ties and sweaters were moving fast. “We’re doing very, very well. We’re quite busy, but we’re having a good time,” she said. “And most people are here for the sales. We haven’t had many exchanges; I think those people wait a couple of days for the crowds to thin out. . . . Most people are here buying the things they wished they had gotten as gifts but didn’t.”

Mall managers at University Towne Centre in La Jolla and at North County Fair in Escondido also said that their crowds appeared to the biggest of the year.

“There’s no parking here . . . it takes you about 20 minutes to find a spot,” said Karen Ashby at the lottery booth at North County Fair. “And Lotto is selling well, too.”

Stocking Up on Cards

Numerous shoppers were stocking up on Christmas cards at the Grandma’s Hallmark shop at University Towne Centre. “People come in, look around at what is on sale, and buy,” said sales clerk Anh Pham.

Patricia Freeouf, store manager at the center’s Slavick Jewelers, said that many people were pricing sale watches and jewelry, although not necessarily buying on Saturday.

“I think that today people are more interested in buying clothes,” she said. “We are not as busy as we were the couple of days before Christmas, but we are busier than I thought we would be.”

Freeouf explained that competition is heavy at University Towne Centre, with 10 other stores competing with Slavick’s. “I think that people want to know what is on sale here (and compare) with the other stores,” she said.

David Deng, owner of Arts of Asia at Grossmont Center, found business about the same as last year, in large part, he said, because upscale specialty stores cannot afford to mark down sales merchandise as much as large department stores.

Repeat Customers

“I did a little ahead of last year for the Christmas season,” said Deng, who does little advertising and depends on repeat customers and word-of-mouth for his business.

At Horton Plaza downtown, shoppers needed patience to find an empty parking space in the multistoried parking garage. Georgia Dunaway found her parking place more quickly by avoiding the popular 4th Avenue entrance and entering the complex off G Street.

Dunaway also found bargains in the Mexican Christmas ornaments being sold off the portable push carts in the open areas of Horton Plaza. The ornaments, $3 each before Christmas, were going for $1 each with a free ornament thrown in with every $5 purchase.

“The sales girl told us that it costs her $600 a week to rent the cart during the holidays compared to only $250 a week for the rest of year,” Dunaway said.

Sampled All Centers

Stephanie Swengel of La Mesa sampled all the shopping centers. During a short break at Nordstrom at Horton Plaza, she said she had found “two real nice skirts,” pulling her finds from a shopping bag. “They feel good, they’re strong, now all I need to find are some tops to go with them. I was over at Bullock’s Grand Finale--the bargain clearance center at Grossmont Center--earlier today, and now that’s where it’s really hectic.”

Not everyone was offering sales. Manager Jake Craft of Super Star Studios at Horton Plaza was still doing a strong business with people wanting to star in their own music video despite charging regular prices.

“It’s been crazy all day but this is pretty typical for us,” he said.

“This will be a late Christmas gift for our dad,” sisters Heather and Heidi Vaught of Pt. Loma said. “We had to wait to get money for Christmas to be able to afford it,” they said, giggling as they prepared for their performance of the ballad, “Somewhere Out There.”

Elsewhere, with visions of post-Christmas bargains dancing in their heads, shoppers packed malls and stores throughout Southern California and the nation Saturday, bringing cheer to merchants who had been less than dazzled by pre-holiday results.

Dozens of customers ignored the cold weather and lined up before 7:30 a.m. outside Bullock’s at South Coast Plaza and the Broadway in Orange. Both stores let the shivering crowds inside well ahead of their planned 8 a.m. openings, and shoppers headed straight for sale merchandise.

By 9 a.m., the Bristol Street off-ramp of the San Diego Freeway heading into South Coast Plaza was congested. “Stores really seem to be packed. No doubt it’s a full house,” said Maura K. Eggan, marketing director at South Coast, the region’s largest mall. Parking in the 37,804-space lots was at a premium throughout the morning.

By 8:05 a.m., five minutes after the Westside Pavilion opened in Westwood, choice spots in the uncovered lot behind the Nordstrom store were gone, and drivers were jockeying for places in the covered structure by May Co. The biggest action was in Nordstrom’s men’s department, where a sale was under way. Scores of husbands rummaged through a table of sale-priced Bally loafers as their wives scooped up armloads of cashmere sweaters.

By noon, major streets leading to the Glendale Galleria were clogged up to three blocks away. Inside, customers were grabbing brightly colored fleece tops and pants off the lower shelves at Pure Sweat. “It’s a mess; I can’t even think,” said store manager Valerie Santana as she replenished merchandise from her perch on a ladder. Meanwhile, shoppers lined up against one wall waiting for an available cashier.

In general, it appeared that Southern California merchants fared better than their counterparts in other regions this holiday season. Elsewhere throughout the country, shoppers did not seem to spend as freely.

Profit Margins Unclear

Despite Saturday’s hordes, it was too soon to tell whether pre- or post-holiday buying would help retailers improve their profits after a shopping season marked by widespread discounting and sales. Throughout the season, the opinion among retail industry analysts was that early markdowns might have helped boost volume, but at the expense of retailers’ profits.

“After the (Oct. 19) stock market crash, we initially scaled back our plans,” said Jim Brust, assistant managing director in charge of operations at the Carson Pirie Scott flagship store on Chicago’s State Street.

“But business all came this last week, and it turned out to be a pretty good Christmas after all.” Sales were above expectations, he said, and the final tally will be modestly higher than last year’s.

By mid-Saturday, Brust was pleased that his store appeared to be handling only “minimal returns, and a lot of people are buying,” particularly marked-down winter merchandise and Christmas decorations.

At Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, business was brisk in fur coats, cashmere sweaters, ladies’ coats, men’s shirts and Christmas items, store manager Jack DeLargy said. Because the day after Christmas fell on a Saturday for the first time since 1981, “we have a lot of families in shopping” instead of the usual crowd of business people in suits, he said.

Focus on Smaller Items

DeLargy said the store will show a percentage gain over last year “in the high single digits,” but he indicated that the shopping season was disappointing. “(Most people) seemed to focus on smaller items like gloves, mufflers and ladies’ fragrances,” he said. Although the store had a spending surge on Christmas Eve, “the last week was not intense,” he said.

Among Southern California merchants, Bullock’s and Bullocks Wilshire sounded decidedly more upbeat than their counterparts in other parts of the country.

“We were very pleased with the Christmas season,” said Allen I. Questrom, chairman of Bullock’s. “With all the negative comments about the economy (and how) it was going to turn out, I would have to categorize us as very pleasantly surprised.”

Questrom said his 22-store chain will report “very strong double-digit” increases over the 1986 holiday season, with customers lured by expensive, different and “fun” merchandise such as cashmere sweat suits. Unlike many other stores, where markdowns came well before Christmas, Bullock’s waited until Saturday to slash prices.

$100 Electric Toothbrushes

At the Broadway store in Newport Center/Fashion Island, sales were running about 20% ahead of last year’s day-after-Christmas levels, said Dan Gillen, general manager. “We started out very, very strong, and it seems to be continuing. And we’re not getting a lot of returns.” Better merchandise--such as suede and leather collections and a $100 electric toothbrush--was selling well, Gillen said.

At Main Place/Santa Ana, Sharon Fritz of Tustin and Julie Borras of Orange said they spent an hour and a half returning a gift to Robinson’s. “They seem to have cut down on the number of salespeople (since before Christmas),” Borras complained. “It was much easier to get (merchandise) out than back in.”

On tony Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, the Chanel boutique exceeded its projections, which had become more optimistic as the year progressed and were not set back by the uncertainties caused by the stock market crash, said manager Catherine Kiek. Unlike others, the store did not participate in pre-Christmas discounting and, in fact, does not plan a sale until next month. During the Christmas season, one of the hottest sellers was a $1,100 Chanel watch; the store sold at least 75.

Chanel’s experience aside, some shoppers indicated that the economy definitely put a damper on the season.

“People are really worried. They don’t know what to expect,” said Dawn De Lauren, a Laguna Hills shopper who got up early to hunt for bargains at South Coast Plaza. “I was very conservative and wasn’t even tempted to buy (for everyone). I just bought for those closest to me.”

De Lauren said that among her friends, “people aren’t living by plastic anymore, charging (items) that will take two years to pay.” She personally spent only half what she spent last year.

Times staff writers Mary Ann Galante in Orange County, Jesus Sanchez in Glendale and Tina Cravat in San Diego also contributed to this story.