A Day After, Some O.C. Shoppers Are Still at It

The scene at MainPlace shopping center in Santa Ana was familiar--shoppers vied for rare parking spaces and toted weighty bags--but the players seemed somehow different. That frantic pre-Christmas look was gone.

“Most of the people today are out for a good time,” said Jodi Duesterhaus, who manages the Imaginarium toy store at MainPlace. On the floor of the shop, a small boy poked at a battery-operated barking dog.

Stores were busier on Thursday than retailers had expected. A manager at a Sav-On Drugs store across town said the unexpectedly large number of shoppers left them shorthanded.

Many people said that they had asked for cash or gift certificates this year instead of presents, and were out spending Thursday. In this nervous recession year, consumers are hoping to make their dollars go as far as they can by catching post-Christmas sales.

At MainPlace, David MacMahon, 45, a Ventura construction worker who was visiting relatives in Orange County, said he never buys anything unless it is on sale. He has not bought a car since 1967. He had chosen two casual, striped shirts from a bin at Nordstrom’s marked “33% off.”

Other items were priced half-off, and some retailers advertised discounts of up to 60%.

“I don’t buy shirts very often,” said MacMahon, “I’m not a fashion-follower.”

At a nearby bin, Pat Prutsok had stuffed a dozen men’s dress shirts under one arm while she continued to search through the bin with her free hand. “I came to see if anything I bought has gone on sale,” she said. “They put a lot on sale right before Christmas, but it was nothing I was interested in.”

She said her son’s favorite brand of sportswear, for example, was still selling at full price before and after Christmas.

By a mall fountain, Jill Storti said she cut way back on Christmas giving this year. Storti, 35, of Orange is an executive recruiter specializing in the insurance industry, and her business has been off by 50% in the past year. Her clients, the companies seeking employees, are looking for prime candidates, and “prime candidates don’t want to make moves this year.” She said the already unemployed are difficult to place in new jobs.

But a bargain is still a bargain, Storti said, turning to her 4-year-old daughter, Erin, and adding, “and we know Mommy loves to shop, don’t we?”

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