Shoppers Reduce Spending, Except for the Children : Retail: Most customers do their buying in discount stores, malls and toy stores, while the independent merchants suffer. Clothiers see sales drop as much as 25% from 1992.

Ventura County consumers, ever-mindful of the sluggish economy, are doing much of their Christmas shopping at discount outlets and malls, making it tough for many smaller, independent shops to compete, some retailers said Tuesday.

“I think people are still very short on money,” said Marsha Alexander, the owner of The Big, The Bad and The Beautiful, a women’s clothing store in Simi Valley. “We’ve lowered all our regular prices especially for the holiday season (and still) sales are down a lot from two years ago.”

Even though merchants at smaller stores have slashed prices, big discount stores and chains often can provide even lower prices on similar items, some shop owners said.

Business is brisk at the Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store in Oxnard, where “just about everything” is on sale, store manager Roger Teel said. “We’re up 10% to 20% over last year,” he said.

K mart in Thousand Oaks is also watching shoppers snap up its bargain merchandise, said store manager Ron Terrinoni.

“We’re doing pretty well,” Terrinoni said. “We’ve got some really good bargains. The (shoppers’) carts are just full, full of everything.”

Electronics and computer retailers said, though, that customers will shell out some heavy sums on luxury items--provided, usually, that the bill comes at some future date.

“We’re seeing lots of MasterCards,” said Pete Carr, the owner of Camarillo TV & Electronics. Carr said although the numbers of individual sales are down this year compared to last year, he’s making more money overall because some customers are paying as much as $3,700 for items such as big-screen televisions.

“I think people don’t have the money and Christmas is only five days away, so they are saying, ‘The heck with it,’ ” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of credit cards” charged to their limit, he said.

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Carr added, though, that except for his big spenders, most of the store’s customers are in bad, bad moods.

“They’re vicious,” he said. “They’re putting off purchases to the very last moment and they’re very short-tempered, I think because they’re very stressed about money.” Independent clothing retailers say their businesses seem to bear the brunt of consumer cautiousness. At some stores, sales are down by as much as 25% from last year’s also-slow season, merchants said.

“We haven’t had a Christmas rush,” lamented Terry Vasquez, the manager of Clothing Wearhouse in Port Hueneme. “I think people’s (gift) lists have gone way down.”

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Some retailers along Ojai’s picturesque Arcade on Ojai Avenue say the holiday season usually is buoyed by tourists and frenzied gift-buying, but this year has been uncharacteristically quiet.

Kathy Francis, owner of The Kindred Spirit, a women’s clothing store on the Arcade, said her sales figures have dropped down to where they were six years ago--without adjusting for inflation. “People are out shopping, but they are picky, picky, picky,” she said.

Anticipating slow sales, Francis said she was cautious and ordered less merchandise this year. Still, she said, she has quite a bit of clothing and silver jewelry left to unload before the 25th.

“I think what’s killing us is all the sales at the malls,” she said.

Cayse Osterlund, manager of Buenaventura Mall in Ventura, said sales are up this holiday season, and part of the reason may be the sales that chain and department stores are offering cost-conscious consumers, he said.

“People are willing to wait now until the stores mark down the prices,” he said.

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The one area shoppers refuse to stint seems to be the toy market. “We are blowing last year out of the water,” exulted Sean King, the manager of Toys “R” Us in Ventura. “We’re having an outstanding season.”

Determined not to let their hopeful children down, customers call the store night and day to find out when the latest shipment of a trendy, out-of-stock toy will arrive on the shelves.

The hottest item this winter is the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger line of toys and figurines, based on a popular children’s television show. The toys retail from $9.99 and up, King said.

“When I get a shipment in, I keep them up at the service desk, because someone could get hurt” in the jostle to buy the toys, King said. “I had one customer once buy a Dragonzord (a toy based on one of the characters in the show) for $39.99, and he turned around and sold it in the parking lot for $75.”