‘Tis the Season to Shop--but It’s Off to Slow Start : Retailing: Sales in the Southland were called disappointing. Analysts have predicted a quiet holiday buying season.
America pushed aside the turkey and trimmings Friday and instead nibbled on the Christmas merchandise in the nation’s shopping malls.
Although thousands of shoppers flocked to the stores, many retailers and consumers found the turnout--and appetite for buying--surprisingly light for a day that often is the busiest of the Christmas shopping season.
“It’s a quiet start,” said Leonard Barron, a salesman at the J.R. Jonathan’s shoe store in the Sherman Oaks Galleria, at midday.
Mona Rad, manager of the Petite Sophisticate women’s clothing store in the Glendale Galleria, said: “Before, money was no object. Now they (shoppers) are watching what they’re spending.”
The disappointing sales at many stores throughout the Southland and the rest of the nation squared with the predictions of a number of retail industry experts. Among other things, analysts have said that shoppers may be getting worried about signs of a softening economy and bored with the merchandise retailers are offering this year.
Barbara Bambrook of Anaheim is a case in point. Taking a break from shopping at MainPlace/Santa Ana, Bambrook and her husband, Gary, a freight driver, said they plan to hold the line on spending this Christmas by not charging purchases.
“This year we’re only spending what we can afford,” she explained.
Taking a break from shopping at the Glendale Galleria, Terry Norton, a contractor from Burbank, said he expects to spend about 15% less than last year on gifts for his friends and family.
“The spirit just doesn’t seem to be here,” Norton said.
His family’s Christmas is “going to be nice but it’s going to be less. I’m not going to buy the big-ticket items.”
“All year, it’s sale, sale, sale,” Norton added. “Who wants to go to another sale?”
All the same, the retailers generating the most enthusiasm among customers seemed to be relying heavily on sharp markdowns--a practice that once was limited mainly to the days immediately after Christmas.
Some of the markdowns stemmed from turmoil in the retailing industry that has brought such major companies as Campeau Corp. and L.J. Hooker Corp. to their knees. In New York, for example, shoppers jammed into B. Altman, an old-line chain that, with the exception of one store, is being liquidated by Hooker to pay creditors.
Two shoppers at Limited Express in Santa Ana--Pat Almeida of Santa Ana and her daughter, Kristi Bowin--found discounts of 40% on merchandise with prices already slashed in half. “We bought five pieces--a skirt, a jumper, a top, a coat-sweater, a pair of pants -- and three sets of earrings--all for $117,” Bowin said. “Everything was on sale.”
Those specialty shops with genuine bargains, in fact, seemed to find no shortage of customers. At L.A. Eyeworks at South Coast Plaza, customers began lining up at 8:30 a.m.--30 minutes before the eyeglass store opened--to take advantage of the annual sale that brought discounts as high as 70% and eyeglass frames for as little as $10.
For the most part, however, the shopping at South Coast and in at least two other top Orange County malls, Newport Center/Fashion Island and Westminster Mall, didn’t pick up until close to noon.
“People take it leisurely on a holiday,” said Maura Eggan, South Coast Plaza’s spokesperson. So while prime spaces could be found at the center’s Crystal Court annex, the main mall’s parking lot was packed by early afternoon.
By contrast, at the newly renovated Fashion Island, business was steady through the day but ample parking could be found. Mall spokeswoman Eileen Bohen predicted that by the end of the day, 40,000 shoppers would have visited the Newport Beach mall, which just completed a lengthy remodeling.
Several shoppers at the University Towne Centre mall in San Diego, where the economy is heavily influenced by military spending, expressed concern over proposed defense budget cuts.
Paul Fisher, who works at defense contractor McDonnell Douglas in San Diego, said: “We’ll spend pretty much as we always do, although we may stay within our budget more. We won’t be as extravagant.”
Bus driver Joe Anderson, shopping at San Diego’s downtown Horton Plaza, said he is cutting back on his Christmas spending. “The rent’s going up, the gas and electricity rates are going up. Things are much too expensive here.”
Anderson said he is going to offer his children a choice between a Christmas present and “a crisp $10 bill.”
His prediction: “They’ll take the bill.”
Aside from trying to attract shoppers with price cuts, retailers also tried to provide some extra conveniences. Target stores, for example, opened at 7 a.m. and many others began business at 8 a.m.
“The emphasis is on service,” said Linda Cerro, marketing director at Mall of Orange, where several major stores are adding more gift wrap or box locations, she said. “They’re all trying to provide better service . . . so there are a lot of prepackaged gifts this year, and shirts and ties that come coordinated so the customer can grab them and run.”
The mall itself has added a pianist and broadened its customer service center by adding an expanded parcel checking service. “Now we offer everything from gift wrap to calling taxis to free strollers to (expanded) parcel shipping,” Cerro said.
Even if the overall trend appeared to be one of disappointing sales for retailers, there were some hot spots.
By 9 a.m., the big Houston Galleria shopping mall was packed. At the Omni, a downtown shopping mall in Miami with mostly business and tourist customers, Jordan Marsh’s general manager, Joe Mazloom, reported that “business has been very good. People seem to be shopping much earlier this year.”
There were even signs of hope for retailers in the San Francisco Bay area, where merchants expressed optimism that the Christmas season would revive sales that have been sluggish since the Oct. 17 earthquake.
In Manhattan, throngs of eager shoppers moved more quickly on foot than the city’s cabs and buses, caught in the gridlocked start of New York’s annual Christmas season rush. With nearly five inches of Thanksgiving snow, the first on that holiday in more than half a century, there was no shortage of people in the Christmas shopping spirit.
Even if sales were sluggish, some of the best part of the Christmas spirit was apparent at the malls.
Possibly the busiest counter at Fox Hills Mall was a small booth manned by three volunteers who scurried their way through 50 customers in less than two hours. And they weren’t even selling anything.
It was the Los Angeles County Foster Parent Assn.’s annual Holiday Dream Tree, and shoppers were lining up to grab colored cards printed with the Christmas wishes of the area’s neglected children. One sample card read: “Age 14. Sex M. 1st Choice: Watch. 2nd Choice: Football.”
“We really haven’t had problems this year,” said Delois George, a Dream Tree volunteer. “The public really buys gifts for these children. It’s been busy today.”
Times Staff Writers Patrice Apodaca, Maria La Ganga, Nancy Rivera Brooks, Linda Williams and Irene Chang in Los Angeles, Mary Ann Galante in Orange County, Chris Kraul in San Diego, Lisa Romaine in New York, Liane Hart in Houston, Ann Rovin in Denver, Tracy Shryer in Chicago and Suzette Parmley in San Francisco contributed to this report.
