Shoppers Gobble Up Sale Items

Partaking in an annual retail ritual, thousands of Ventura County residents Friday flocked to factory outlets, bombarded “big box” stores and mauled the malls in a hunt for day-after-Thanksgiving bargains.

And find them they did.

On what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, stores countywide reported sales higher than last year as shoppers scurried for sale items, particularly the hot toys of the season.

The scene was a full-fledged Furby frenzy outside the Toys International store in The Oaks mall, where grandmothers and teenagers took numbers and lined up for a chance to purchase the talking toys.

At times the scene turned ugly.

Judie Litman of West Hills said she was attacked when shoppers thought she was trying to cut in front of the line at the toy store.

“One guy grabbed my one shoulder, and another guy grabbed the other,” said Litman, who has 11 grandchildren. “They were yelling, ‘Get to the back of the line.’ It was awful. I think people are taking this a little too seriously.”

Things were tamer elsewhere in the mall, where parents pushing strollers lined up to get photos of their tots taken with Santa and weary husbands and boyfriends sneaked away from their sweeties to listen to the Thousand Oaks High School band play Christmas songs.

Seemingly unperturbed by the economic unrest abroad and the wild swings of the stock market at home, shoppers at Ventura’s Mervyn’s store started lining up at 5:45 a.m. in search of half-off sales and a novelty penguin given to the first 1,800 customers.

Fifteen minutes after the doors opened at 7 a.m., the penguins were gone and the shoppers were off and running.

“Everyone’s arms were just loaded down with gifts,” said Mervyn’s Manager Janet Toscano, who said her store has seen a “significant increase” in sales over last year. “We had 2,500 people come through the doors in the first half-hour. That’s a lot for little old Ventura.”

Whatever economic trepidation is occurring on the international front, it is not to keep shoppers home, according to managers at several Ventura County stores and malls, who were reporting higher sales than last year.

Despite an ongoing remodeling project that has eaten up many parking spaces, the Buenaventura Mall was packed with shoppers.

“So far all indications are that the holiday season is going very well, better than last year,” said mall General Manager Cayse Osterlund. “Now that [the mall’s new] buildings are going up, the mall renovation has become a bit of a customer draw. People want to see what kind of progress we’re making.”

To help ease the parking crunch, the mall is offering a shuttle service that takes shoppers to and from their cars.

Cindy Woods, who was shopping at The Oaks mall, wasn’t deterred as she lugged five massive shopping bags around the mall. Clad for comfort in gray sweatpants and slip-on wool clogs, Woods was picking up trinkets for co-workers and more substantial gifts for friends, family and in-laws.

By 11 a.m. she was more than half done with her Christmas shopping.

“I still have to buy something for my mom; the harder to pick presents are left,” she said. “I work all the time, so I’m taking advantage of the long weekend. I’ve got more stuff in the car.”

Not everyone hit the stores looking for gifts and loot, however.

Diane Snodgrass of Simi Valley had planned to boycott the busy shopping day and avoid the crowds. That is, until her 21-year-old son, Bryan, asked for mom’s help picking the perfect present for his fiancee.

“I came today because he asked me to, and he doesn’t usually ask me to do that much with him,” she said, grinning at her lanky son. “How could I refuse?”