Last-Minute Shoppers Crowd Malls

Emilio Gutierrez was vacationing in Ventura on Sunday, but there was a lot of pressure on him.

In less than 48 hours, he would be sitting with more than two-dozen family members and friends in Oxnard exchanging Christmas gifts.

But Gutierrez, standing inside the busy Pacific View Mall in Ventura, had yet to buy a single present.

“What can I say? I got a late start,” said Gutierrez of Las Vegas, who arrived in Ventura with his wife Saturday.

Similarly, thousands of Ventura County residents endured heavy traffic, made their way to shopping malls and waited in long checkout lines to meet the gift-giving deadline.

Some blamed the last-minute dash on busy work schedules and limited savings. A few said the terrorist attacks had dulled their holiday spirit.

“It took a while to get into it,” Gutierrez said. “I’m still waiting for the spirit to hit me. I guess it will hit me when I check my bank account.”

Despite the recent downturn in the economy, business has been steady at Pacific View Mall since the shopping season started after Thanksgiving, said Alice Love, director of marketing.

“Overall, the shopping season has been really good,” she said.

Mall officials believe sales receipts from the Christmas shopping season will top proceeds from 2000.

“We were all holding our breath because of all the dire predictions for the shopping season, but it’s been busy. Our parking lots are full,” Love said.

Amber Workman of Ojai arrived when the mall doors opened at 8 a.m. By noon, she was hauling around two large plastic shopping bags filled with coffee makers, boxes of chocolates, pots and pans and calendars.

Workman acknowledged she got a late start but said she was enjoying the season and looking forward to her house being filled with family and friends.

There was a steady stream of shoppers at the Camarillo Premium Outlet mall, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Pat MacAuley, who spent the day at a temporary command post there.

“The crowds are a little lighter than we thought they would be,” MacAuley said. “It’s not been as busy as it was the past few weeks.”

Most shoppers have been courteous and well-behaved, MacAuley said, but deputies arrested several people this month for shoplifting at the outlet mall.

A holiday work shift was perilous for a mounted deputy working at the outlet mall.

Deputy Janice Morrill suffered a concussion and bone fractures when she she was thrown from her horse in the parking lot Saturday.

She was treated at a local hospital and released.