MONDAY Report : It’s That Time of Year: CALENDAR ONSLAUGHT

When Randall Clarke began buying calendars for Fowler Bros. bookstore eight years ago, it was a rather easy job. All he had to do was choose a few calendars that would occupy a small table top in the downtown Los Angeles store.

Now, Clarke faces a much more complicated task. He must fill a 20-foot section of shelves with 200 different calendars that feature everything from puppies to German-made trains.

“It’s a tricky buy because you don’t know what’s going to be hot next year,” said Clarke, who began ordering 1989 calendars as early as February. “You don’t want to get stuck with a lot of them.”

Fueled by growing numbers of time-short but style-conscious consumers, retail sales of calendars have soared in the past few years and are expected to surpass $1.3 billion in 1988, according to Hallmark Cards. Each year sees book-, stationery and gift stores introducing calendars earlier in the year and making more room for the 12-month timekeepers.

The end of the year sees store shelves and tables brimming with glossy calendars. Wall calendars, which have become increasingly stylish and expensive, are by far the most popular and account for about two-thirds of the market, industry executives say.

Most calendars are designed to appeal to a wide audience, with photos of breathtaking scenery, cuddly animals, and well-toned men and women. And this year, calendars with a humorous twist have topped the best-seller lists at major bookstore chains.

But more calendar makers are tailoring their products to specific groups to boost sales. Ski buffs, Elvis fans, modern art patrons, Baby Boomers, working mothers, nature lovers and back yard gardeners can all count on finding a calendar made just for them. Even those who attended the legendary Woodstock rock concert nearly 20 years ago can find a calendar commemorating the event.

“We are selling more calendars in general,” said Mary Lilja, spokeswoman for B. Dalton Bookseller, which puts calendars on sale as early as June. “It seems that people are not as willing to put up the free calendar that they got from their bank.”

The industry’s growth has attracted a host of newcomers in recent years, which has resulted in increased competition.

“The market has become glutted for the past five years,” said Nick Clemente, executive vice president of Price Stearn Sloan publishing in Los Angeles, which produces Murphy’s Law calendars. “Everybody and his brother has come in now.”

“There are new companies sprouting up all the time,” said Patricia Strathdee, president of Landmark General in Novato, Calif. As a result, Landmark and other firms have had to introduce new lines to keep up with products introduced by newcomers. “We have over 250 lines,” Strathdee said. “We have a calendar for everybody.”

The surge of new calendars is most evident at bookstores, which only five years ago rarely carried them. Executives at Waldenbooks flip through 700 new calendars a year before selecting 250 that will end up on store shelves.

“We used to present store buyers with our calendars in May or June,” said Clemente, adding that sales now begin as early as March. “There is so much for the stores to look at.”

The business is lucrative enough for Waldenbooks to publish its own line of calendars through a subsidiary, Longmeadow Press. In fact, a Longmeadow product--Cats and Kittens Mini Wall Calendar--ranks as the eighth-best-selling calendar at the bookstore chain.

“Calendars attract a clientele that does not always come into (general interest) bookstores, like college kids,” said Dara Tyson, a spokeswoman for Waldenbooks. The college kids have boosted the popularity of 16-month-long calendars, which begin in September and run through the following year and have forced stores to stock calendars earlier in the year.

The calendar boom, say some industry officials, can be traced to the growing numbers of working women, who find it necessary to work out their schedules well in advance. In fact, about 90% of calendars are purchased by woman, according to Michael DeMent, a spokesman at Hallmark Cards. “The industry is driven by the needs of working mothers,” he said.

Besides helping to manage their time, working women want something else from calendars, Dement says. “They frequently have told us, ‘We want something that looks good if we have to look at it so much,’ ” he said.

That is why calendars have gotten larger and more lavish, with thick, glossy paper, sleek designs and eye-catching photography and illustrations. Hallmark, for instance, introduced a new line of poster-size calendars that buyers can frame at the end of the month. The prices of some oversized and glossy wall calendars approach $20. Such prices are justified, industry executives argue, because such costly wall calendars not only act as planners but become a part of home and office decor. “You buy a calendar and you have 12 different pictures while a poster will only give you one,” Strathdee said.

But most of the best-selling calendars cost less than $10 and rely on a formula. “We know going in that there are some kinds of calendars that people are going to want year after year,” said Dement.

The perennial favorites are scenics, shots of the California coast or New York skyline, or those with animals--with cats, dogs and horses topping the list in that order.

The large number of women buyers has made beef-cake a standard. The male torsos on Chippendale’s calendar has propelled it to the No. 4 spot on Waldenbook’s list of best sellers.

Art calendars are also becoming widely popular. “French impressionism always sells,” Burke said.

Trying to come up with successful themes is not easy. Designers pore over magazines, television shows and question consumers to find out what fads or trends would lend themselves to calendars.

“The big one this year is cows,” said Phil Madans, special projects manager at Outlet Books in New York. “They go in cycles,” he said of calendar trends. “People get tired of them and then they come back in style.”

Hit television programs often make for good material. “ALF,” “Wiseguy” and “Beauty and the Beast” have their own calendars. And pop music stars such as George Michael or Michael Jackson often end up on calendar covers.

Complicating matters is that most calendars out today were completed last fall. So, designers were forced to guess what would be trendy during 1989 even before 1988 had arrived.

“We never know what year we are in,” said Madans, who has finished completing his firm’s 1990 line. “But we have plenty of calendars around to remind us.”