Can Customers Make 4th Quarter Seller’s Market 2 Years Running?

Retailers from Fashion Island in Newport Beach to the Lab anti-mall in Costa Mesa, from the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point to the bar-restaurant up the street, are expecting their highest sales ever this holiday season.

But they will have to top last year’s figures, which set the record, according to retail spending figures for last year’s final quarter.

Those figures, recently released by the state, show that retail spending in Orange County rose 5.1% to an all-time high of more than $10 billion.

Statewide, retailers posted a 4.2% gain in last year’s fourth quarter to $96.3 billion. Los Angeles County sales rose 3.7% to $24.1 billion, the highest of any county in the state.

The numbers come from the just-released quarterly taxable sales book published by the California State Board of Equalization.

In Orange County, shoppers spent $1.1 billion on merchandise at such places as Nordstrom and Macy’s department stores, the Costco warehouse outlet and chains like Target and Mervyn’s.

Residents spent as much on food and drink--$762.8 million at bars and eateries--as they did on new cars--$762.2 million. Business and personal services pulled in $608 million.

Anaheim topped the list of Orange County cities with the biggest share of retail sales with $939.4 million. Irvine was second with $875.8 million, followed by Santa Ana at $867.7 million and Costa Mesa with $760.4 million.

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Marc Ballon covers small business and entrepreneurial issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7439 and at marc.ballon@latimes.com.