Smart Shopping : A Dizzying Array of Choices In O.C.

If the theme of this year’s election was change, the holiday shopping season will be about choice.

Never before have Orange County shoppers faced such a wide assortment of possibilities in deciding where to spend their gift-giving dollars.

Malls. Shopping centers. Factory outlets. Swap meets. All have been around in various forms for years. But as the recession has motivated shoppers to seek deeper and deeper discounts, the lines between various shopping possibilities have blurred.

Some outdoor shopping centers, like Tustin Marketplace or the new Anaheim Hills Festival, are cultivating upscale images even though they are anchored by large discount stores. Some malls, meanwhile, have invited in some discount retailers to balance their mix of swank department stores and specialty shops.

What happened to the days when shoppers were satisfied to simply hit the malls for their gift hunts?

Mostly, the decline of the department store. Robinson’s and May Co. announced that they will combine in January, and in some cases consolidate operations at some of the county’s strongest malls, such as Brea Mall and MainPlace/Santa Ana. It is the latest in a trend of closures and consolidations of department store chains that over the last two years has seen the demise of Buffums and the pruning of selected Broadway stores.

As consumers have become more cost-conscious, malls have tried to catch the fever. They are welcoming discount stores without fear that they will undercut prices of neighboring upscale retailers. For example, a new Circuit City, a nationwide low-price electronics and appliance chain, is about to debut in what was the lower half of the Buffums store at swank Fashion Island Newport Beach. The Mall of Orange is boasting about its Just A Buck store, where every item costs $1.

With few first-tier department stores to fill the void, the rules have changed about what a center requires in a so-called anchor store, the kind of large retailer whose advertising, name value and sheer size will draw patrons to a mall’s smaller stores as well.

The new Triangle Square center in Newport Beach, which will not be fully leased until next year, is depending on a huge, subterranean Alpha Beta supermarket and the Southland’s first Nike Town athletic wear store to draw patrons.

Is it a mall, or is it a shopping center? The experts aren’t quite sure.

“We have cases where a Marshall’s or other discounters have filled the spaces where three or four years ago it was unheard of to have a discounter,” said Keith Foxe, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade organization based in New York. “When you look at tenant mixes, there are so many hybrids we don’t have names for them yet.”

As the old retailing taboos have fallen in the name of survival, some stores are trying new gimmicks to boost sales. Some chains started putting up their Christmas decorations before Halloween. Some plan to be open on Thanksgiving Day. But for many consumers, the principal lure is price. That is forcing store chains that abhorred discounting in the past to bite the price tag. It has become a way of life.

Thus many retailers are prepared to lower their profit margins if it means more bodies coming through the door. For shoppers, the winter of 1992 promises to be another season of bargains galore.

“People are gravitating to the stores that only have sale items,” said Pat Murphy-Kessinger, a retail consultant for the accounting firm of Ernst & Young in Costa Mesa.

Retailers are hoping that the election of Bill Clinton as President will bring with it a boost in consumer confidence that will translate into higher sales. Three out of five Orange County merchants say the most important issue to them is that the new Administration enact economic policies to help loosen consumers’ purse strings over the next 18 months, according to a poll released last week by the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche.

Already, there are hopeful signs that consumers may be ready to spend again.

“Retailers, in general, had a pretty decent fall and there is a lot of expectation that they could be up 5% to 7% nationally in December,” said Tony Cherbak, a retail consultant for the firm’s Costa Mesa office.

Still, retailers are being tight with inventories--which means stores may empty of popular items as the holidays approach--and stores are not hiring as much extra help as in pre-recession years.

Big department stores will have to discount and promote more than usual to compete against the mass merchandisers and cut-rate stores, he said. But if the shopping season improves, consumers should not expect the kind of last-minute deep-discount sales that were common just before Christmas in the last two years.

“A lot of people’s shopping philosophy is that if they are going to wait, they are going to get burned,” Cherbak said.

So where to shop? To make the choice a little easier, here is a synopsis of what’s happening at some of Orange County’s shopping alternatives.

MALLS

South Coast Plaza is marketing itself for the season with greater vigor. It is nearly doubling, for instance, the number of slick catalogues that it is delivering to area households.

Its selling point: “Half of our stores can’t be found anywhere else in Orange County,” said marketing director Jan Roberts.

At Brea Mall, which generally ranks with MainPlace/Santa Ana as the second or third most popular mall in the county, General Manager Jim Charter says he expects a good year. Despite the recession, he said Nordstrom and Robinson’s have been doing strong business so far this year.

Customers are “cautious. They are not spending just to be spending,” he said.

Fashion Island, easily one of the most pleasant places to shop in the county on a sunny day, wants to consolidate its image as a haven offering restaurants and an eclectic store mix. A Hard Rock Cafe just opened; the Cheesecake Factory is next. Besides Circuit City, a monstrous discount Bookstar store will be added to what had been a center known for its classy jewelers and Beverly Hills-style boutiques.

Jostled by competition from the giants, other centers are learning to adjust. The Mall of Orange, which recently completed a renovation that added a huge skylight, now views itself as a community, rather than regional, mall.

“Obviously we can’t compete against” the likes of South Coast, MainPlace and Brea, acknowledges marketing director Stephanie Greene. So the mall is trying to remake itself as a place were locals can feel comfortable dropping in several times a week. She said the mall, which is anchored by the Broadway, Sears and JC Penney, has the philosophy that “the best things in life are free.” Or at least marked down.

This holiday season also marks a chance to say farewell to Anaheim Plaza, one of the county’s first major shopping centers and, in the early 1970s, one of its most popular malls. Only 11 stores remain, the biggest being a Broadway. Even though holiday decorations will be up, it is the only Orange County mall where Santa Claus will not be paying a visit.

It is being torn down next year, unable to compete with its more popular neighbors. Only its successful Mervyn’s department store will be spared.

SHOPPING CENTERS

Perhaps it’s fitting that the Anaheim Hills Festival was originally supposed to be the site of a regional mall.

Now that malls are passe, the festival opened in October as an open-air shopping center with the kind of discount mass merchandise stores that are now the vogue. Among them are Target, Marshall’s and Mervyn’s.

There is no other strong collection of discount stores within miles, boasts Bradley A. Geier, the center’s development director.

Other centers are being renovated to attract new, high-concept discount stores. La Habra Fashion Square was de-malled--turned from a mall into a shopping center and dubbed the La Habra Marketplace--a couple of years ago. Honer Plaza in Santa Ana was rejuvenated into Bristol Marketplace.

The Irvine Co., which operates several shopping centers, says it expects a strong holiday season, particularly with some additions it has made.

The Woodbridge Center, for example, has shown strong sales increases since Ruby’s and Chevy’s restaurants were recently added, said Frederick Evans, who heads the company’s retail division. At the Walnut Village center in Irvine, a Super Crown bookstore and a Trader Joe’s market have boosted sales.

“There’s a very positive retail climate out there for this Christmas season,” Evans said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that (customers) will shop where they know they can get what they want.”

OUTLETS

If customers are willing to put up with a mismatched seam or other slight blemish, or with buying a discontinued color or style, or with a store that is a little hard to find, then factory outlets and close-out stores are the place to go.

In the past, they have been popular with die-hard bargain hunters. But as the economy has soured, the outlets have gone mainstream.

The Citadel Outlet Collection, in an old Uniroyal tire factory building off the Santa Ana Freeway in Commerce, and the Desert Hills Factory Stores in the Riverside County community of Cabazon have proven as popular as malls that feature outlet stores.

Equally popular are close-out stores like the Nordstrom Rack in Santa Ana, across Sunflower Street from the Nordstrom chain’s Orange County flagship store at South Coast Plaza, or the Montgomery Ward liquidation centers in Buena Park, Garden Grove and Santa Ana.

But individual outlets lurk throughout the county. Orange County is a haven for off-price sneakers, with numerous outlet stores operated by Converse and Vans.

The Converse store at Five Points Plaza in Huntington Beach sells popular men’s high-top basketball shoes for $25, down from a regular price of $33. “We’re selling these things like crazy,” said Assistant Manager Steve Cole. Sneaker maker Vans operates one of the few true factory outlet stores in the county--next to its plant on North Batavia Street in Orange. There’s another on Bristol Street in Santa Ana.

An Eagleson’s Big and Tall Outlet Center operates in Fullerton; cut-rate Catalina swimwear and women’s name-brand sportswear can be found at the Outlet on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

OUTDOOR SWAP MEETS

Outdoor swap meets are still the place where sellers can cut their overhead--actually, most have only the sky overhead--to a point allowing them to offer unmatched discounts on name brand goods.

There are weekend swap meets at both Orange Coast College and the Orange Drive-in Theater. The local granddaddy is the Orange County Marketplace at the Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Diane Wallace, who has operated Mom’s Beauty Supply at the Fairgrounds swap meet for 15 years, said the recession has forced her to cut prices on many items even deeper. For holiday gift giving, she said vendors are offering great deals on name-brand sweaters and shirts.

Some of the merchants offer 30% to 50% off the kind of brand merchandise found at better department stores. “I feel guilty if I put an item out that isn’t 15% to 20% less” than comparable retail, said turban-wearing Rockport shoe dealer Karta Khalsa.

Despite those discounts, the Orange County Marketplace has been hit by the recession like everyone else. Merchants complained to their landlord, who recently cut their rents by 10% because of the downturn.

But the merchants are optimistic about the holiday shopping season. “I think we’re coming back at the swap,” Khalsa said. “If last weekend is any indication, we’re going to have a rip-roaring holiday season.”

What Retailers Are Doing to Compete

Tightening expenses 26.2% Tightening inventory levels 22.7% Increasing promotions 18.3% Offering more exclusive merchandise 13.7% Decreasing profits 10.3% Increasing advertising 10.0% Offering everyday low prices 9.8% Adding preseason promotions 7.3%

NOTE: Total does not add to 100% because of multiple responses. Source: Deloitte & Touche, Trade Retail & Distribution Services Group

Guide to Survival *

NO LOUD TIES: It’s time to break out of that gift-giving rut. Be creative. Be different. Try something new this year. D11

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YULE MULES: Slogging through the malls can be harder on the feet than mountain climbing--if you lack the proper shoes. D11

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WHERE SANTA CLAUS IS COMING: Keeping children entertained makes shopping a whole lot easier. But what shopping centers are tops in holiday festivities? D10 *

HUG A TREE: Finding the right Christmas tree is like finding a friend to live with you for a month. They should be chosen carefully. D11.

Shopping Tips

Avoiding the traffic. The best way to avoid South Coast Plaza traffic at the Bristol Street exit of the San Diego Freeway is to exit instead at Fairview Avenue, proceeding north to South Coast Drive. Turn right at South Coast, park at Crystal Court, then take the free shuttle to South Coast Plaza. It runs every two minutes or so.

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Quality time . . . NOT. Shopping with children is not always efficient. Busy parents can drop kids off at Step by Step child care center at the Sporting Club at Lakeshore Towers in Irvine. “Shopping nights” are Mondays and Wednesdays starting Dec. 2, for children ages 2 months to 13 years. Cost: $5 an hour for club members; $6 for non-members. Information: (714) 250-4422, Ext. 250.

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For safety’s sake. Park in well-lighted areas. Carry less than $100 cash when shopping and refill at mall automatic teller machines. Carry only one credit card. Have car keys ready when walking to your car and put all packages in the trunk. *

Tree test. Grab a Christmas tree branch about six inches from the tip, then pull toward the tip. Needles should not fall off. Pick the tree up and let the stump hit the ground. Needles should stay on the branches.

Researched by CHRIS WOODYARD and MIMI KO / Los Angeles Times