Flood of Last-Minute Purchases : Damp Shoppers Take Stores by Storm

They were dreaming of a bright Christmas. Or at least a dry one.

Last-minute shoppers who flooded onto the San Fernando Valley’s main street Saturday could do nothing but go with the flow in the final hours of the Christmas shopping season.

Parking lots were overflowing with cars along the 22-mile length of Ventura Boulevard between Studio City and Woodland Hills. Curbs were awash with rainwater. Aisles were surging with shoppers.

Harry Bab leaped over a 4-foot-wide river in the 13400 block of Ventura to pick up a final holiday gift at Gus’ Smoke Shop in Sherman Oaks. Sandbags were stacked next to the shop’s front door in case the water rose any higher.

“You don’t have a choice. You jump,” explained Bab, a Reseda resident.

Benjamin Sterkin darted through a downpour and past double-parked cars outside a Thrifty Drug Store in Woodland Hills. He was hunting for Christmas wrapping paper--and an umbrella.

He hurried to the picked-over umbrella shelf first. “It’ll keep the wrapping paper dry,” said Sterkin, who lives in Calabasas.

Water was dripping down Debbie Rubio’s back as she stood huddled over at an automatic teller machine outside a Home Savings & Loan branch in Studio City. She was withdrawing money for a few last-minute purchases--including a bundle of wood for the fireplace.

Rubio’s tattered umbrella covered her front, but not her back. “It’s on my list. I’m hoping somebody gives me a new umbrella for Christmas,” Rubio said as she grabbed her cash and hurried off.

In Sherman Oaks, Chris Marella was soaked as he stood next to his pickup truck. His keys were locked inside and he had been standing in the rain, trying for 2 hours to get in with a coat hanger.

“I used up all my change calling people I know to come help me. All I was getting were answering machines,” said Marella, a Canoga Park resident. “I’ve got three more gifts to get and I’m running out of time.”

His friends Catherine Seitz and Jordan Foley of Van Nuys finally arrived with more coat hangers. Soon, the pickup was unlocked and the shivering Marella was on his way.

Santa Claus was dripping in Tarzana.

“It would be nicer if it was clear,” said Santa, who stepped under an overhang at the Wall Street Plaza shopping center to escape the rain and greet shopper Suzanne Lee of Woodland Hills and her 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Anna.

A bank thermometer across the street read 43 degrees. But Henry Childers said he was sweating beneath his heavy red outfit with the two large pillows strapped to his waist. “It’s more of a sauna suit than a Santa suit,” said Childers, who lives in Venice.

In Encino, Janice Morris stood with about two dozen others in a line that snaked out the Honeybaked Hams store, where 2,000 pre-ordered cooked hams were being sold. Rain was pelting the people in line. But Morris said she didn’t mind.

“I’ve got seven people coming for Christmas dinner,” the Van Nuys resident said. “I’m making scalloped potatoes, chopped spinach and the rest, but I’m buying the ham. Every minute counts at Christmas.”

The rain was deflating sales expectations at the Off My Back clothing store in Sherman Oaks. It was doing the same to an archway of helium-filled balloons strung up as an attention-getter outside.

“Business was better earlier this week,” clerk Doug Dean said as he dashed outside and picked the balloons off the sidewalk. He shook water droplets off in a partially successful attempt to relaunch them.

“We’re a tad disappointed,” Dean said.

But in Studio City, gift shop owner Amy Mills was praising the rain. She said it was contributing to the best Christmas season her 9-year-old store, The Country Life, has had.

“The weather makes it more Christmasy,” Mills said. “Nobody is in a Christmas spirit when it’s hot outside. I’m thrilled it’s raining.”

And in Woodland Hills, Blair Romer said he was also happy with the rain--even though it seemed to have followed him indoors.

Romer of Woodland Hills was browsing in the psychology section of a Crown Books store. He was standing next to four large plastic barrels that were catching rainwater leaking through the bookstore’s roof.

“I love the rain,” Romer said. “The only problem is they are out of the book I was looking for as a gift. So I may just buy something for myself.”