WESTSIDE / COVER STORY : Open Season : Malls Use Sales and Gimmicks to Battle Large Discount Stores for Holiday Dollars

One mall features a pet-friendly Santa Claus and a menorah-lighting ceremony. Another sports new “niche” stores, a post office and valet parking. And all deck their halls with what is now a Yuletide staple--pre-Christmas sales to get even Grinches to open their wallets.

Across the Westside, malls are offering a crush of new services, merchandise and dollars-and-cents inducements to ensure strong holiday-season business, which typically accounts for 25% to 40% of mall retailers’ annual sales.

Their efforts, coupled with an uptick in post-recession consumer confidence, may be paying off. Though sales figures for this holiday season are not yet available, Westside mall managers and retailers report a marked improvement over last year.

There are, to be sure, downsides. Some analysts, for instance, warn that by luring shoppers increasingly with pre-Christmas sales, malls may be making it harder for themselves to sell during the rest of the year.

But most experts agree that malls have had no choice but to find new ways to draw a crowd. With the cost-conscious public shopping increasingly at discount stores and outlets, malls have sought to become far more than simply places to buy shoes and clothes.

“It’s not fun when you go out to a warehouse-type store to buy a carton of paper towels,” said Mark Schoifet, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Malls. “But it can be fun to spend the time with your kids at a mall, shopping, eating and stopping in a museum.”

There’s plenty of evidence that Westside malls have been scrambling to create a broader retailing and service mix that includes automated bank teller machines, movie theaters, and both fast-food and upscale dining.

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, angling for the discount dollar, opened a T.J. Maxx cut-rate clothing store in November, while the major tenant, Sears, has just finished a $2.5 million renovation. To trumpet the changes, the mall on Nov. 25 hosted a Christmas parade that culminated at the mall.

Beverly Center, meanwhile, has opened 20 new stores in the last three weeks, tempting shoppers with high-profile stores including Guess?, Timberland and Ann Taylor Studio. And Fox Hills Mall in Culver City is experimenting with billboard advertising that promises shoppers easy access and easy parking.

A key goal, mall managers say, is to regularly attract surrounding residents. Sometimes, however, their strategies diverge.

Century City mall, for instance, is tailoring its holiday offerings to affluent professionals with little leisure time. According to mall surveys, the majority of customers come with an agenda: to buy an item, attend a movie, or go to a restaurant, said Linda Smith Frost, marketing manager of Century City Shopping Center and Marketplace.

“Generally, during the holidays we try and provide atmosphere, but not host a lot of events,” Frost said. “We believe (events) impede business, and get in the way of why people are here.”

Hence, the mall has not sought the services of a Santa Claus--but provides efficient valet parking.

To the west, however, Santa Monica Place offers a multitude of holiday activities and services.

The mall has hosted celebrity appearances, Westside school choirs and a menorah-lighting ceremony for the eight days of Hanukkah--the first night drawing more than 500 people, according to mall officials. Santa Monica Place even publishes a holiday schedule of events, printed on the paper place mats used in the food court.

And it also provides a Santa--but not just any Santa. For the savvy kids, the mall demands that Santa must have an authentic, snowy-white beard, said Robin Faulk, Santa Monica Place’s marketing director.

But St. Nick must also be something of a St. Francis. In an effort to cater to Santa Monica’s many single, pet-owning residents, Santa must also offer his lap to dogs, cats and other critters.

“(Santa’s) held everything,” Faulk said, grinning.

Meanwhile, at Fox Hills Mall in ethnically diverse Culver City, children can choose their own Kris Kringle. The mall has African American, Caucasian and Latino Santas on hand.

And at the Westside Pavilion, a post office substation has been set up so shoppers can immediately ship the gifts they purchase.

All six Westside malls have adopted Yuletide sales.

Last week, The Limited clothing retail chain in the Westside Pavilion was prominently displaying “Holiday Countdown Sale” signs offering 10% to 50% discounts on various merchandise.

Even the perennial after-Christmas sale of holiday greeting cards was advanced at The Nature Company at Century City mall. The specialty store cut the price of Christmas cards by 30% weeks before Christmas.

Nowhere is the aggressive mark-down strategy more evident than in the department stores--or, in mall lingo, the “anchor” stores. Weekend sales have become the norm in recent weeks at Robinsons-May, The Broadway, Sears, J.C. Penney and Bullock’s.

Hard-core shoppers Anna Irons of Hancock Park and Barbara Hurwitz of Van Nuys were among those taking advantage of the bargains last week at Westside Pavilion. The pair sat on a couch in the shoe department of Robinsons-May, surrounded by half a dozen recent purchases, as Hurwitz tried on several styles of boots on sale.

“Look at these prices. They were $69 now they’re $40,” Hurwitz said.

Irons, a self-described shopaholic, said she shops and buys, Christmas or not: “With these sales, I just buy more.”

Some experts warn such holiday bargains could backfire. Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., says consumers begin to expect sales, and become resistant to paying full-price--exactly what merchants want to avoid.

“After years of experience, shoppers learn the lesson that things are going to be marked down near Christmas,” agreed Russ Joyner, general manager of Fox Hills Mall.

A far greater challenge to area malls, however, is a trend that the holiday markdowns are in part intended to combat: the competition from discount stores. Consumers are increasingly turning their shopping carts in the direction of Ross Dress 4 Less, Target and Toys R Us, eager to pay a few dollars less.

Shoppers also flock to large discount malls, where large-chain retailers sell out-of-season merchandise. Although the so-called outlet malls have yet to appear on the Westside, they have sprung up in Oxnard, Barstow and the City of Commerce--and attract their share of Westside customers.

“(Shoppers) drive across the country to save a dime,” said Dick Carter, vice president of Blattris Realty Co., a Century City firm specializing in retail leasing. “People are getting very, very cost-conscious.”

Taking a break from their expedition at Westside Pavilion last week, Culver City residents Karen Coyle and Bernice Bradley said they go to Westside malls only during the holiday shopping season to buy presents, see the decorations and “get in the spirit.”

Both said they prefer to make their regular purchases at such discount stores as Target, Costco, or Kmart.

It is against this background that area malls have been scrambling in recent years to vary their retail and service offerings. Whether or not the strategy has helped bring about a particularly green Christmas this year is so far unclear.

Some mall retailers are far from joyous.

Longtime toy retailer Linda Brody said Christmas sales this year have been been anything but booming at her store, Imaginarium, at Century City Shopping Center.

“There has been a tremendous lull between Hanukkah and Christmas,” said Brody. “I just don’t see the crowds blowing down our door.”

On Dec. 9, she reported that the mall was virtually empty.

“I could have rolled a bowling ball down one of the corridors and not hit anyone,” she said. “I’m not delighted at all.”

Yet most retailers agree that compared with last year, more shoppers were out this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year.

“Retail sales have been very, very strong,” said Kyser. “The post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping rush indicated a strong Christmas period.”

According to U.S. Commerce Department figures, Los Angeles County posted retail sales of $18 billion during the last three months of 1993, Kyser said. Taking into account what appears to be renewed enthusiasm of buyers, he predicted the final three months of this year will bring in sales of $19.8 billion.

“(The Christmas rush) definitely came earlier this year,” said Frost of Century City Shopping Center, echoing the sentiments of other mall officials and many retailers. Last year, people waited until the last weekend to make their purchases, she said.

Frost estimates 150,000 people came to the mall in the three-day weekend following Thanksgiving; the mall’s normal daily car count is 30,000.

“Consumer confidence is definitely up,” said Evette Caceres, marketing director of the Beverly Center. She said approximately 165,000 shoppers came to the 900,000-square-foot Beverly Center in the post-Thanksgiving weekend, about 10% over a normal weekend day.

Joyner of Fox Hills Mall estimates that this year’s holiday sales are 5% to 10% ahead of last year’s pace. Said Joyner: “We’re pretty optimistic.”

Mall managers can thank people like Karen Coyle. Though Coyle prefers to do her regular buying at discount stores, she still can’t resist the mall’s Yuletide allure.

“I dread shopping in malls normally, except for at Christmastime,” the Culver City woman said. “Then I don’t feel guilty about buying lots of presents.”