As Many Suffer, Some Like It Hot

Southern Californians were doing what they had to do to escape the heat Wednesday. Some went to the beach. Others tried to bribe air conditioner salesmen.

“Basically, they say, ‘How much is it going to take to get you out here?’ ” said Don McMillan, sales manager of Brody Heating & Air Conditioning on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles. The company, which installs and repairs air conditioning systems, handled hundreds of calls, many from people who discovered to their horror that air conditioners that had sat idle all winter would not work.

As temperatures approached 110 degrees in downtown Los Angeles for the second consecutive day, McMillan and other merchants selling relief from the heat saw business surge.

Shoppers at a K mart in East Los Angeles gobbled up all the store’s window air conditioners Wednesday and left a dwindling supply of fans, said Floyd Salazar, merchandise manager for the Commerce store. It sold about eight air conditioners Wednesday, he said.

“We normally sell half that quantity the whole summer,” Salazar said.

By late afternoon, the Circuit City outlet on Sunset Boulevard was also out of air conditioners, a spokesman said.

Union Ice, a Los Angeles distributor, Wednesday reached its 160-ton daily production capacity, said general manager Larry DuRee.

The company, whose customers include distributors and grocery stores, was handling about 2 1/2 times normal volume, he said.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook since about seven o’clock this morning,” he said. “We’re packaging every pound we can make.”

“We’ve probably taken more calls during the last two days than we’ve taken during the last four to six weeks,” said Susan Kaiser, general manager at Brody Heating & Air Conditioning. “I’ve been here four years and this is the most inundated we’ve ever been. People are really suffering.”

Kari Mason, supervisor in the home improvement section of Sears in Santa Monica, said her office has been flooded with calls and pushy shoppers since Tuesday, when her salespeople rang up $15,000 in sales of air conditioners and fans.

“They are taking beat up air conditioners, old ones, whatever,” she said. “I just gave one lady a beat up air conditioner that was missing parts. I warned her, but she said ‘Please, give it to me. Give me anything.’ ”

Coastal hotels were doing a brisk business too.

There was a line for registration at the just-opened Guest Quarters hotel in Santa Monica, a short walk to the beach, and the phones were ringing off the hook.

“We have people checking in here because they don’t want to be in their homes--a lot of people,” said front desk clerk Lisa Girardi.

Occupancy at the posh Santa Monica hotel jumped 12% overnight; a phenomenal increase given that the hotel just opened several months ago, marketing director Dennis Fitzpatrick said. Calls began flooding in from the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, San Bernardino and almost everywhere else not close to the beach on Tuesday, he said, but the volume increased so dramatically on Wednesday that the hotel decided to let people check in at least four hours before the usual 3 p.m. check-in.

Sitting at an outdoor cafe next to Santa Monica Place were two women who would not give their names. “I come here to keep cool and to take care of all my errands while staying air conditioned,” said Wendy.

“It’s called strategically placed errand shopping,” said her friend.

Another popular attraction was the area movie theaters, with people queuing up for Robocop II and other movies well before the shows started.

“Of course we’re here to escape the heat. Why else would we go in the afternoon? We’re playing hooky,” said Marina Strong, a self-employed woman from Pacific Palisades, after she and a friend bought tickets to Robocop II at the Cineplex Odeon/Broadway Cinemas in Santa Monica.

“It doesn’t matter what’s playing,” said her friend, Ron Rickards.

“As long as it’s cheap, it’s cheerful and it’s cool,” added Strong.

While customers may have ventured outside for ice and air conditioners, they’ve postponed other shopping.

Merchants at a deserted Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood Wednesday afternoon said they had never seen midday business so dead at the outdoor shopping area.

Downtown, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel canceled today’s “Arco concert,” one of a series of weekly outdoor concerts that draw the lunchtime business crowd.

Said hotel manager James Simkins, “At this point, we feel it would be absolutely dangerous to go on with it.”

Also contributing to this story was Times staff writer Josh Meyer.