Some Retailers Find the Holidays a Time More Grim Than Glitzy
Tom Howard knew that he’d have to spend money to launch Christmas Corner, an ornament and gift store he opened for the holidays in downtown Reseda.
The 8,000-square-foot building--a clothing shop and stationery store in previous lives--needed $300 in paint and $600 in new lights before Howard could open the doors in late November for a six-week Christmas run.
What was unexpected was that he would have to spend another $1,000 to replace the front windows. They were shattered about 2:30 one morning less than two weeks ago by a burglar who made off with a tandem bicycle and two stuffed toys, one a 6-foot-high stocking with Santa Claus’ head popping out of it and the other a 5-foot-tall teddy bear dressed in a Santa suit.
Until last Friday, the front of Howard’s store was covered by plywood boards, which he said made it seem as if it were under renovation. Frustrated, he hung a sign that was a bit off the usual Christmas spirit. The sign offered to pay “$500 for the arrest and conviction of the vermin” who broke his windows.
“If you sat down and wrote out a formal business plan to do this, you probably would say it isn’t worth it. Now I hope I can just break even,” Howard said.
Many Attractions Missing
This is the flip side of the experience of merchants in most enclosed shopping malls, who often have no more to worry about than getting enough patient sales people to handle the throngs of shoppers. But in older neighborhood shopping centers and once-thriving downtown shopping areas that have long been in decline, Christmas sales can be a struggle.
There are no lines of children wanting to speak to Santa Claus, no piped-in music, no climate-controlled buildings and no attractive models passing out cologne samples.
The merchants are something like survivors in retail Darwinism. They operate amid video rental stores, nail salons, thrift stores, doughnut shops and convenience stores that have taken the place of the clothing, shoe and toy stores that moved to indoor malls.
Meeting last year’s daily sales figures is often less important than keeping out burglars, getting insurance when few companies will write it and making a living in places where there is virtually no foot traffic. Here is a look at three small merchants and their efforts to make a dollar at Christmastime:
As rain poured down on the sidewalk outside, Phong Huynh waited behind the counter of his Van Nuys toy and gift store. It was just before noon and he had no customers. The only activity in the store came from Huynh’s 3-year-old daughter, Kelly, who climbed a stool in search of a toy to play with.
A refugee from Vietnam, Huynh, 36, started AAA Toys & Gifts three years ago, selling imported items he buys from his brother and sister, who are wholesalers. The dolls look slightly like Barbie. The sandals he sells are from China for $1.99. The baby shoes cost $4.85.
Huynh has no employees and works from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; on Sunday, he works from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. “I don’t like vacations,” he said.
Ten years ago, Huynh and his family fled Vietnam, paying for passage on a boat to Malaysia. The family grocery store in Saigon--now called Ho Chi Minh City--was seized by the government along with the family home on the second floor.
After a year in a camp in Malaysia, he and his family moved to Vista near San Diego, where he worked at a plastics plant. On weekends, he sold toys from the back of a station wagon at drive-in swap meets. Sometimes he lined up as early as midnight for a choice spot at the swap meets the following morning.
Huynh saved $20,000, much of it made working overtime, and used all of it to go into business for himself. He found a $1,380-a-month store off Van Nuys Boulevard and said he likes the location, partly because it is near a police station, which makes him feel safe.
He and his wife, a part-time manicurist, save on child-care expenses because Huynh can watch Kelly at the store. The two other children are in grade school.
On a typical day, he says, sales total $100 to $200, which climbs to $500 to $900 a day during the Christmas season. No checks are accepted, and all sales are final.
Someday, Huynh says, he hopes to save enough to open his own wholesale toy business. In the meantime, he said, he spends as little money as possible.
Unlike the case in Christmases past, the decorations hanging at Ken Levitt’s San Fernando jewelry store do not celebrate the holiday in red and green. Instead, they announce in bright yellows, blues and reds the liquidation of his business.
Signs read: “Quitting Business! Fixtures for Sale.” Reminders to sign up for a giveaway contest organized by a professional liquidator Levitt hired in which people can win a grandfather clock, waffle iron and other prizes. Yellow tags on jewelry show markdowns of 25% to 75%.
A dirty blue, white and tan mat that reads “Your BankAmericard welcome here” greets customers along with a Kiwanis gum ball machine that sells squares of gum for 2 cents. An electric train he put into his window chugs around pulling flatcars with signs reading “Ask About Our Credit Terms’ and “Credit Terms Available.”
In the jewelry cases a sign reads: “Our insurance company allows us to show only one item at a time from this showcase.” Actually, the sign is deceiving. Levitt cannot get an insurance company to write a policy for him covering theft because the store is in a high-risk area.
By February, Levitt, 52, hopes to have closed the store on San Fernando Road that was founded 43 years ago by his father. The store put Ken Levitt’s son, now an advertising executive, through USC. But five years ago, Levitt began sensing that his business was sliding. Sales, once as high as $30,000 to $50,000 a month, dropped to about $16,000 a month and the losses piled up.
He blames himself for some of the problems. The store’s credit terms were too liberal, which means that a lot of customers missed payments. He estimates that he lost $10,000 a year from people who did not pay. And he faults himself for not being aggressive enough in trying to get them to pay up.
“I used to have a friend who owned a clothing store down the street who used to laugh at me,” Levitt said. “He said people told him they’d pay him because Mr. Levitt won’t complain.”
Levitt said he should have closed the store two years ago, but did not because he held out hope that business would turn around. Now, his plans are uncertain.
He owns the store, and may lease it out. Then, he said, he’ll probably get into the real estate business.
Tom Howard was working late Sunday night when he saw a hand and a foot-long screwdriver trying to pry open the back door of his Christmas Corner store. He scared the burglar off.
It was a victory of sorts. It was the first time in three tries that burglars had failed to break into his Christmas gift store in Reseda this month. Besides the time when someone smashed his front windows, another burglar smashed a side window, taking a cash register containing $200.
For Howard, 40, starting a Christmas store has been full of surprises. Earlier this year, he sold two business--one an insurance agency and another a trustee business that handled paper work for banks foreclosing on property.
About two months ago, a friend persuaded him to be a partner and principal financier of Christmas Corner, which will be open until the end of the year. Howard agreed to do it if 25% of the profit went to an animal protection charity that he contributes to.
Howard persuaded the landlord, a friend of his, to rent him the store for $2,000 for six weeks.
Howard’s costs keep climbing, though. He spent $12,000 for the Christmas merchandise to stock his store and contributed some antiques from his home. Ribbon and paper to wrap gifts cost him $700.
The store is on Sherman Way, a once-thriving boulevard in the heart of the San Fernando Valley that had fallen into decline in recent years. Down the street is the closed Reseda Theater, once the area’s main source of entertainment.
If his store were in a shopping mall, the stream of customers would be larger, but it is a moot point, Howard said, because the rent in a mall would cost thousands of dollars more.
Howard estimates that he needs $25,000 in sales to break even. With less than a week left before Christmas, it will not be easy. He has sold about $6,000 worth of stuff so far and sales are averaging only about $500 a day. But he says that if he can only sell a couple of expensive antiques, it could make all the difference.
