Holiday Sales Lag Despite Bustle at Valley Stores : Shopping: Local retailers say purchases have been flat or slightly off from 1994 because many consumers spent the weekend sizing up merchandise.

San Fernando Valley retailers on Monday reported mixed results for the first official weekend of the holiday shopping season, with heavy foot traffic at malls and shops but sales that were flat or down slightly from this time last year.

However, retailers also indicated they would be satisfied if sales this year merely match last year’s--which were surprisingly strong.

“There were a lot of lookers, people sizing up” merchandise during the past weekend, said Michael Strle, vice president and group manager of the O’Connor Group, the owner and manager of the Promenade mall in Woodland Hills. As a result, he said, the center’s total sales were about 2% below those during Thanksgiving weekend last year.

During the 1994 holiday season, sales at the Promenade jumped 15% from a year earlier, partly because the Northridge Fashion Center was closed for earthquake repairs. But the Northridge mall reopened in August, drawing back some customers that had been diverted to the Promenade.

Another factor affecting holiday retail sales this year, Strle said, is a lackluster apparel market. “I’m not sure there’s any clear fashion trend that consumers can identify,” he said.

Jerry Hurwitz said this past weekend was relatively slow at Adele’s II, the upscale gift shop in Encino he owns with his wife, Doris. The reason, he believes, is that Hanukkah falls in mid-December--much later than last year.

“It will start breaking loose later this week,” Hurwitz said.

Holiday sales are also off to a slower start than last year at the Power of Play toy shop in Agoura Hills, said owner Bonnie Aharoni. “I think people felt the holidays snuck up on them,” she said.

What’s more, Aharoni said, savvy shoppers are looking for both bargains and quality. Two of her store’s most popular brands, Playmobil creative play sets and Brio wooden train sets, will be discounted this week and next.

For all of Southern California, analysts expect a slim 2% to 3% gain in retail sales this season--lower than projections for nationwide sales. Those forecasts appeared to hold true over the weekend, as national mall sales rose a respectable 5.8%, but many local malls reported flat sales.

But Richard Giss, a retailing analyst at the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte & Touche, said that local upscale malls “tended to fare better than their less tony cousins” because consumers are opting to buy items they perceive as having long-term value. Also, some local stores that pulled in shoppers with heavy promotions and discounting had strong sales--but at the cost of some profits.

Bill Gillota, manager of a Target store in Northridge, said he was very pleased that sales over the weekend were about even with last year. That’s because the reopening of the Northridge Fashion Center could have made a bigger dent in the discount store’s sales, he said. Target enticed shoppers with “survival kits” filled with coupons, aspirin, toothpaste and other items.

Once in the door, customers spent heavily on toys, holiday decorations, appliances and consumer electronics, Gillota said. But he also lamented the absence of a “must-have” product this year. “I think the marketplace is struggling to find a hot item.”

At the Media City Center in Burbank, sales rose 5% to 6% over those on Thanksgiving weekend last year, said Dan Millman, the mall’s general manager. That’s largely because the 5-year-old mall has opened new stores recently, he said.

But sales per customer were down, Millman said. He noted that strong demand for computers and other electronic gear was offset by slow apparel sales. In particular, sales of winter clothes such as sweaters and coats were slowed as temperatures in the Valley soared into the 80s on Friday.

Also, Millman said, retailers over the past few years have trained consumers to expect big price cuts as Christmas approaches.

“A lot of people are seeing what’s in the stores now, and seeing what the prices are,” he said. “I think they’ll be back by the second week of December.”