Post-Christmas Sales Rush : Shoppers: Malls, and roads in, are packed. In one store, an escalator reverses direction, injuring nine.

There were only 363 shopping days left until Christmas, and Susan Peterson of Orange wasn’t wasting any precious time Saturday.

As Peterson left the Target store on 17th Street in Santa Ana, she had just enough room in her bright orange cart for her 2-year-old son, Derek, who was surrounded by brown paper bags filled with holiday wrapping paper, ornaments, figurines and a few stocking stuffers for Christmas 1993.

“I’m one of those people who like to get their shopping done early. Especially when you can take advantage of sales,” Peterson said. “All the Christmas stuff is 70% off. You can’t beat it.”

It was that promise of money to be saved and bargains to be found that rousted thousands of Orange County residents from their holiday bliss to return gifts and take advantage of after-Christmas sales.

Despite the throngs of shoppers and traffic jams at some retail centers, the day was largely uneventful except in Anaheim, where an escalator laboring under its load of holiday passengers suddenly reversed direction. Nine people were shaken up. Some were sent to hospital.

For those who love malls, the traditionally heavy shopping day fell on a Saturday--almost as good as a present from Santa. But for those who would rather find coal in their stockings than spend a day at the mall, it wasn’t pretty.

“I’m here under duress,” said Christopher Evans, 18, of Costa Mesa, who drove his mother to the Sears Roebuck and Co. store at South Coast Plaza. “I don’t know why anybody would be here unless they had to. No sale is worth this.”

Evans was talking about the traffic jams and near gridlock at the entrances to South Coast Plaza, where drivers slowly circled the massive parking lot looking for a space--any space.

Cars and trucks already were jammed into any available parking spot, legal or not. Mall security officers were busy trying to keep people from parking at the curbs directly outside the store entrances.

The siege of shoppers produced heavy traffic on Orange County freeways, the California Highway Patrol reported. The entire length of the Riverside Freeway, especially the eastbound lanes, were backed up, as was the southbound Santa Ana Freeway in Santa Ana.

“Nothing happened, it was just a lot of people going on the same freeway at the same time,” a CHP officer said.

The biggest traffic snarl was at South Coast Plaza. Cars lined the streets leading to the area. A Costa Mesa police officer said it was “in one word, gridlock.”

Anaheim police also had their hands full when a freak escalator accident injured nine shoppers Saturday morning at the Broadway department store in Anaheim Plaza. The escalator “suddenly reversed directions for unknown reasons,” said Steve Magliocco, a Fire Department division chief.

All of the injuries appeared to be minor, he said, but some of the nine people were taken to nearby hospitals.

Retail workers throughout the county said Saturday that they were braced for an onslaught of items to be returned, but added that they were thankful for the business brought in by the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays.

“You always worry because people keep talking about the recession, but it’s been a good season so far,” said Maila Smith, senior assistant store manager at Ross Dress for Less at the Tustin Market Place.

The post-Christmas sales this year have become particularly important to California retailers. Many economists and retail industry analysts have been predicting that there will be no significant increase in holiday season spending in the state compared to a year ago, and some observers say sales in the Southland will be flat or will drop slightly.

Although Southern California sales are expected to be lower than the national average, some retailers are doing surprisingly well. Sears’ Southland sales increase has outpaced the company’s national average, said Matt Howard, the company’s senior vice president for marketing. Sears had projected an overall holiday season sales increase in the low-to-middle single digits nationwide, but Howard said nationwide sales have exceeded those expectations.

And, while the pre-Christmas sales in Southern California are expected to be more modest, local retailers appear to have good reason to hope that the post-Christmas shoppers will improve their bottom line.

At malls across the county Saturday, shoppers could be divided into two categories: Those who followed the golden shopping rule and those who forgot that most basic survival tactic.

“Get in early, get out early,” explained Melinda Mendoza, 20, of Santa Ana, who was on her way home at noon Saturday, with her year-old son, Israel, and her shopping buddy, Julie Gallarzo, 22, also of Santa Ana.

The women had arrived at the South Coast Plaza before 9 a.m. Saturday, found a space close to the mall entrance and began hunting down sales. The shoppers who were still smiling at midafternoon where those who had arrived as shops opened their doors.

“Yes, that would have been a good idea, but a better idea is to stay at home,” said Richard Harris of Fullerton, who watched the throngs of shoppers go by while he stood outside a boutique where his wife was shopping.

Elisa Arellano of Santa Ana said she arrived at Target in Santa Ana early because she worried she would be kept waiting in the return line for hours.

“I hate to be kept waiting,” said Arellano, who was returning a dart board that a friend had purchased for her 2-year-old grandson. “Can you imagine? A dart board for a baby?” she said, shaking her head.

But not everyone was trying to avoid the crush. Some actually liked it.

“I don’t mind the crowds, I enjoy it,” said Rae Easton of Laguna Hills, who spent the day shopping with her daughter, Kristy Daniel. Both of them were loaded down with shopping bags filled with home items and gifts that had been exchanged. But the real shopping had not yet begun.

“We’re going to have lunch, and then we’ll start shopping for us,” Daniel said.