Mall Shoppers Lend Credence to Poll’s Pessimistic Statistics : Economy: Customers exercise cautious consumption in keeping with findings of UCI survey showing a drop in consumer confidence.

WESTMINSTER —  Shoppers at one of Orange County’s most popular malls said Tuesday that they are adhering to a recessionary shopping ethic--buy only what you must, and then only on sale.

The trend marks a sharp turnabout from years of conspicuous consumption and seemingly endless optimism about the local economy. A UC Irvine poll released Tuesday found that more Orange County residents than ever--28%--said they were financially worse off than a year ago. The poll also found that median family income did not rise above 1990’s $49,000, the first time since the poll began in 1982 that there was no annual increase.

Comments by many of the shoppers strolling Westminster Mall on Tuesday mirrored the poll’s downbeat results.

“I was born and raised in Southern California and I’ve never seen the economy so down,” said Glenda Murray, 52, of Fountain Valley, who was shopping along with her mother and her 99-year-old grandmother. Murray bought only a sport shirt for her husband. “I feel sorry for the younger generation now. It’s going to be tough raising children and buying a house today.”

Robert Ocampo, 49, a construction contractor from Westminster, said the severity of the recession had become all too apparent to him this week--on Monday, an ongoing construction job was canceled in a cost-saving move. Ocampo said he came to the mall with his wife, Marie, to walk awhile and try to forget his troubles.

“We’ll just be window shopping,” he explained. “I’m ready to spend some money, but only on necessities.”

Tom Finnegan, a 38-year-old airline customer-service representative, had come to the mall for the first time since June to buy some cologne and a shirt as a gift for a cousin. He said that “prices are just far too high” and that he is not planning to do any Christmas shopping this year. Last year, he said he spent $800 on holiday gifts.

One man said that the regional economy is so bad that he plans to move his family to Olympia, Wash. “I’m moving out of California because the jobs are not here anymore,” said William Condon, an auto-mechanic supervisor who lives in Long Beach.

Some mall merchants said that one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreary retail sales picture has been sales to younger consumers, whom the UCI poll found least affected by the downturn.

“Teen-agers go with a trend regardless of the economy,” said Caroline Handy, co-manager of Rave, a young women’s apparel store.

UCI’s phone poll of 1,002 adult residents Sept. 4 through Sept. 21, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, found that nearly half of the adult respondents under 34 were optimistic about their personal finances.

Many shoppers say they have switched to lower-priced discount outlets, spurning malls and the pricier shops, as a way of cutting expenses.

Monica Goodwin said she had been shopping more often at the Price Club warehouse discount store in Fountain Valley, instead of the malls, since her husband was laid off as comptroller of an Irvine company in July.

“It used to be blue-collar workers in our neighborhood who were laid off. Now even managers are being laid off,” she said. “It’s like a depression for us.”

Wary Consumers Orange County residents have seen their houshold income flatten out and a record number believe that means the economy won’t improve in the coming year. O.C. Median Household Income What About the Future? Percentage responding to the question: “Do you expect good times or bad for the U.S. next year? 1986 Don’t know: 12% Good: 64% Bad: 24% 1991 Don’t know: 14% Good: 41% Bad: 45% Source: Orange County Annual Surveys, UCI Gloomy Economic View: O.C.’s consumer confidence is taking a beating, annual survey finds. A1