Mall retailers bask in after-Christmas glow

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Although South Coast Plaza officials said the number of

visitors this holiday season matched last year’s figures, retailers said

shoppers spent their money differently this year.

Jamie Prada, manager at toy store FAO Schwartz, said customers bought

less clothing and more housewares, toys and electronics.

“It was much better than last year for us,” Prada said. “We were one

of the few retailers in South Coast Plaza that did fairly well. I know

that throughout the mall not a lot of people were shopping for clothes.

We were in the right line this year.”

Bill Peters, manager for Kenzo, which sells women’s apparel, said

Wednesday that fewer shoppers visited the store this year. However, he

said he expects sales figures to be even with last year’s, partly because

of a successful post-Christmas shopping season.

Beginning Tuesday, bargain hunters hit the mall with a vengeance to

take advantage of the marked-down merchandise.

Peters said a second reduction on winter items -- lowering prices 60%

-- could be part of the reason shoppers are buying so much after the

holiday, Peters said.

“I’d say sales are going to be pretty much flat with last year, but I

did notice a [decrease] in the overall number of purchasers,” he said.

“People who bought four gifts last year bought two this year. I

definitely saw that as a trend. But we still have a few days left in the

month to see how it goes and yesterday was really busy. Based on our

traffic and our sales yesterday, I’d say our after-Christmas sales are

going to be higher than last year’s.”

Lareza Panucchi, manager for women’s apparel store MaxMara, said she

did not notice a lack of customers at the store.

“We did fantastic,” she said. “We had the best season in the world.”

MaxMara, Bang & Olufsen and Aveda were among a number of stores with

holiday sales that far exceeded last year’s, according to their managers.

“Our products were flying off the shelves,” said Christal Keys, a

manager for Aveda, a cosmetics retailer. “Our increase from last year is

just enormous. We have no gift sets left, and we’re limited to what’s on

our shelves right now. . .. Plus, our stores are way more exclusive now

because you can’t get our products in beauty supply stores now.”

Nathan Sipan, manager for Bang & Olufsen, which sells high-end

electronics, said the 3-year-old store’s increase in sales was no

surprise.

“They were a lot higher than last year, but we’re new to the market

and sales have been growing every year,” Sipan said. “Our products are

very specialized. Our sales are more or less back to normal now.”