Holiday Sales Bring Cheer to Area Vendors

As the holiday shopping entered its final weekend, toy vendor Helen Grosso was just where she wanted to be.

“I’m running out,” Grosso said Saturday, as she surveyed the diminishing stock in her booth at the Camarillo Indoor Bazaar. “It’ll probably be empty before Christmas. I hope so.”

While few Ventura County merchants predict a sellout in the five shopping days left before Christmas, many said they are doing all right.

“Back in July, I didn’t think it would be this good,” said Barbara Teuscher, general manager of The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks. “Things really came alive in October. . . by mid-November we felt confident it would be a pretty good Christmas in Ventura County.”

And it will probably be a better season for merchants than last year’s recession-starved holiday, Teuscher said. For one thing, the crucial period between Thanksgiving and Christmas--when retailers typically make 20% or more of their yearly sales--is two days longer this year.

More important, she said, “shoppers seem to be real positive.”

At Mervyn’s in Simi Valley, holiday sales also are exceeding expectations, Manager Kent Westbay said.

“Business is actually a little bit above plan and a little bit above last year,” he said. “Our inventories are right where we want them to be. We don’t expect to be stuck with a lot of stuff.”

Recent cold weather has been a factor, Westbay said.

“One of the things that has helped us is colder weather,” he said. “You don’t always have it to go along with the Christmas season . . . . It’s difficult to be buying sweaters when it’s 80 degrees.”

Sweaters are also starting to move at Rains department store in Ojai, as is merchandise generally, owner Alan Rains said.

“We got off to a slow start. The first part of December was slower than usual,” he said. “But in the last few days, it has picked up. . . . I think we might end up OK in terms of meeting sales goals. We’re not setting any records, there’s no doubt about that.”

Kitchen wares and other household goods are selling well, he said. “People are looking for practical items.”

That may explain why jewelry sales are off, both at The Oaks and at George Thompson Diamond Co. in Oxnard.

“We’re behind last year,” Thompson said. “We’re just not getting the traffic we have before. We’ve spent more than ever on advertising. There’s just not the sales.”

He said holiday business has been less than last year’s, which was off from 1990. And at The Oaks, Teuscher said, jewelry “is a little shaky.”

And more leather jackets have been tried on than purchased at Richard Glassman’s booth at the Camarillo bazaar.

“It’s not that great,” Glassman said. “They don’t have the money. Times are tough.”

His wife, Donna Glassman, said customers tend to choose $99 jackets rather than ones in the $200-$300 range. “I think people are still worried about the economy,” she said.

But such concerns have not prevented Nevada Bob’s Discount Golf in Oxnard from having its best holiday season since it opened three years ago, Manager Taylor Talkington said.

“The golf business doesn’t suffer much in a recession,” Talkington said. “It may even prosper because people want to get away from it all.”

Sales are up about 25% at the Ventura Bookstore, co-owner Ed Elrod said. “We are busy, busy, busy,” he said. New titles by James Michener and Stephen King are selling well, he said, as is Richard Rodriguez’s “Days of Obligation.”

“Madonna is still boiling on the back burner,” Elrod added, referring to the singer’s $50 volume titled “Sex.”

Several merchants said shoppers are taking their time before committing to a purchase.

“People are much more careful,” said Terry Klier, a wreath-maker selling her handiwork at the Camarillo bazaar. “They’re really thinking a lot before they buy. They look for two weekends in a row, then the third week they say, ‘Now I’m ready.’ ”

Dean and Kila Barker took the opposite tack, piling up $250 worth of toys in a single morning for their two boys and two girls, who range in age from 2 to 10.

“We’re spending about the same as last year,” Dean Barker said as he wheeled an overloaded cart from Toys R Us in Ventura.

Kila Barker reminded him, however, that she had already picked up another $100 worth of children’s clothing.

Across the street, at the Journey Home metaphysical store, owner Norma Dierck was serene.

“I feel we will exceed last year by the end of the season,” she said, as a half-dozen customers browsed among self-help books, relaxation tapes and American Indian crafts and jewelry.

Customers are optimistic, she said.

“I’ve heard no complaining, no penny-pinching, and no fear.”