Specialty Kiosks Enhance Gift Shopping at Holidays

Three traditions that symbolize Christmas: Santa Claus, decorated trees and Hickory Farms Inc. stores.

The first two may be more in line with the true holiday celebration, but the latter is definitely a common sight at holiday time. Hickory Farms, the 44-year-old retailer known for its packaged food gifts, is one of a large number of temporary shops, kiosks, or carts that show up in malls only around major gift-giving holidays.

In Ventura County this Christmas season, The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks, the Buenaventura Mall in Ventura, and The Esplanade in Oxnard all have Hickory Farms outlets. All three shopping centers can also lay claim to a host of other Christmas-season retailers.

For mall officials, seasonal stores help to round out tenant lists, in hopes of attracting more gift-buying customers. For the retailers, the shops are an attempt to cash in on the holiday buying frenzy, and to promote year-round businesses.

“Christmas is a big percentage of our business. It’s the only retail we do,” said Terry Quinones, who with her husband, Larry Quinones, rents a cart at The Esplanade for their Sierra Bonsai Gardens.

The husband and wife, who grow about 5,000 bonsais at their Camarillo nursery, first brought the miniature trees to the mall last Christmas. They returned on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. The bonsai trees sell for $10 to $130 each.

“Last Christmas, we had all new customers, this year we’ve had repeats,” said Terry Quinones. “We’ve built up some good regular customers. People were calling us, asking when we would be back.”

Holiday sales supplement the Quinoneses’ regular wholesale operation. Their clients include Home Depot stores in San Diego, as well as independent nurseries. “Bonsais do well at Christmas. It’s a big time in the nurseries too,” said Quinones. “We saw the way our product was selling wholesale, so we came to the mall.” Sierra Bonsai Gardens is one of 11 seasonal retailers at The Esplanade. Hickory Farms and the Calendar Club have regular store spaces. The other nine tenants--five in rented carts and four in kiosks--are spread throughout the mall’s main thoroughfare.

“A lot of the items we have on carts and kiosks are impulse items,” said Donna Farrell, general manager of The Esplanade. “They are in a unique position because they are in the middle of the mall, out where customers can see the merchandise.”

Farrell said the mall received about 40 requests for space for this holiday season, and selected only those that meshed with the mall makeup.

“We work with the [regular] tenants,” she said, “to make sure we are not duplicating product lines already sold here, and that we are enhancing our product mix.” Farrell would not say what the mall charges for rent on temporary spaces, only that it varies case by case.

Kamal Darwiche of Thousand Oaks, has a Candles & More cart set up at The Esplanade, to hawk his American and European hand-crafted candles. The cart is located outside Music in the Box, a 7-year-old collectibles store which, not coincidentally, is also operated by Darwiche.

“I have wanted to do candles for a long time, but unfortunately I didn’t have the space for them in the store. So I came up with this concept,” said Darwiche, whose candles are priced mostly between $3 and $20. “Being in the middle of the mall, it is an eye-catcher. It attracts people like a magnet.”

For Camarillo artist Gary Saderup, this marks the fifth Christmas season he has rented a space at The Oaks mall for his Charcoals by Saderup retail business. The walls of his temporary shop are filled with charcoal drawings of such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, John F. Kennedy and the Beatles.

“Business isn’t too bad. We started out slow, but it’s picking up,” said Jason Simmons, a store employee who has worked for Saderup for five years. “A lot of people come in, look around, leave and then come back.”

In addition to his shop at The Oaks, Saderup has a seasonal kiosk at the Buenaventura Mall. The artist regularly travels to art shows throughout Southern California and operates a year-round store at Topanga Plaza shopping center.

But customer response at Christmastime keeps the artist returning to Ventura County, said Simmons. “He’s here during the holiday season because he makes pretty good money,” Simmons said.

Not all merchandise has an established customer base, however. Diane Brandes, director of marketing at The Oaks, said temporary outlets provide retailers with an opportunity to test-market products.

“They can showcase their merchandise,” she said, “and see what the trend is going to be.”

The Oaks has six temporary shops this season, including a Postal Annex + packaging and shipping store operated by Michael and Dianne Hebert of Moorpark. The Heberts own a year-round Postal Annex in Thousand Oaks, part of a national 160-store chain, and lease out two others, in Simi Valley and Agoura.

Michael Hebert said the Christmas store is really a marketing tool. “We do a tremendous amount of advertising for it. We really promote it,” he said. “It helps draw customers to the other stores throughout the year.”