Shoppers Brave Rain, Cold to Kick Off Holiday Spree : Few Price Cuts Due, Sellers Say

Despite raw, rainy weather with temperatures dipping into the 40s, Southern California shoppers warmed to the idea of spending the day after Thanksgiving at local malls today, thus getting the Christmas selling season off to a bracing start.

Elsewhere in the country, unseasonably warm weather drew out hordes of lookers and spenders.

At Century City Shopping Center, many stores opened an hour or two earlier than usual to lure the early birds, but shoppers only trickled in.

“We’re expecting a late-afternoon crush,” said Babette Ory, a saleswoman at the upscale mall’s Nature Company store. She and a co-worker attributed the late start to the chilly, damp conditions.

Jean and Len Gima of Culver City walked hand in hand but otherwise empty-handed. “The sales aren’t that good,” they said.

Although stores are touting the usual day-after-Thanksgiving sales, shoppers will not be finding as many bargains as last year, when merchants got caught between oversupplies of goods and customers’ economic concerns after the October, 1987, stock market crash.

This year, merchants say, they have planned more cautiously and reined in merchandise supplies so that they can avoid the rampant price-cutting that characterized last year’s selling season.

A driving rainstorm in the San Diego area this morning caused a sharp drop in the number of post-Thanksgiving shoppers during the first few hours of business at area malls. Parking lots at Fashion Valley and Mission Valley Center had few cars, whereas last year many mall managers were directing traffic and closing crowded parking lots by noon.

At Mervyn’s, a family-oriented department store in Glendale Galleria, it was a different story. Eager bargain-hunters, bundled in overcoats, bounded up the escalators after the store opened its doors at 8 a.m., two hours earlier than usual. Parents were soon waiting with their children in lines 20 deep at check-out counters.

In New York, window shoppers strolled up and down the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue early this afternoon as tourists and residents admired everything from jewelry store necklaces to the pencil sketches sold by a woman on the sidewalk opposite the New York Public Library.

After a cold Thursday, most pedestrians were prepared, wearing heavy overcoats and parkas, only to unbutton and unzip as a warm sun raised the temperatures to a relatively balmy 51.

In Houston, in the midst of a tentative recovery from oil-related economic woes, temperatures in the 70s drew people from their homes to the malls. By 11 a.m., drivers were circling the Galleria parking lot to find parking spaces.

At Macy’s in the Galleria, newlyweds Randy and Jan Meyer of Houston were being careful. With hopes of buying a house in the near future, Randy Meyer was steering clear of high-priced luxury items.

“We’ve got a price limit on everything,” he said. “But I think it’ll be a bit stronger season for most people here. There’s more money flowing in the local economy.”

Shopping at the lower-end retail stores was brisk. Hubert Yeldell, manager of a south Houston K mart store, looked out his store’s windows at 6:30 a.m. to find nearly 100 people waiting for the 7 a.m. opening. K mart saturated the Texas market on Thanksgiving Day with television commercials during the Dallas Cowboys-Houston Oilers football game, touting its extended holiday hours and upgraded image.

Although he was excited over the day’s business, Yeldell was looking forward to bigger returns later in the month. “Today may be the first day of the shopping season, but it’s not the busiest,” he said. “We’ll be hopping on Dec. 24.”