Shoppers flock early

Alicia Robinson

Local retail giants Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza are

expecting big sales this year, and they kicked off a holiday shopping

frenzy in the wee hours on Friday.

At South Coast Plaza, some stores opened at 6 a.m., an hour

earlier than last year, and customers began arriving at 4:30 a.m.,

said Debra Gunn Downing, the shopping center’s executive director of

marketing.

It was a similar scenario at Fashion Island, where some 200

customers awaited the 6 a.m. opening of the Robinson’s May department

store, Fashion Island Marketing Director Shayne Voorheis said.

“This is probably going to be one of the strongest holiday seasons

we’ve had in several years,” she said.

While officials at neither shopping center could provide figures,

Downing predicted South Coast Plaza would see the best holiday sales

it has seen in the past five years.

“We’ve seen a lot of indicators that it’ll be a really strong

holiday season,” Downing said. “We’ve seen double-digit gains in our

monthly sales figures for several months running.”

Boasting a low unemployment rate and a high median income, Orange

County has been largely insulated from the economic woes of the rest

of California and the country.

Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza are near full occupancy and

each have had several new stores open this year.

“If there is a vacancy, it’s actually under construction,”

Voorheis said of Fashion Island, where new stores include Pampolina,

the only U.S. store for this European children’s apparel retailer;

Forever 21, a trendy boutique for young women; and Indigo Palms, the

first casual clothing “concept store” opened by men’s and women’s

clothier Tommy Bahama.

Sales levels at many of the chain stores at South Coast Plaza,

such as Crate & Barrel and Banana Republic, make the top five within

their chains, Downing said.

Among the newest stores at South Coast Plaza are designer apparel

store Roberto Cavalli, fine jewelry retailer Temple St. Clair, and

electronics outlet Sony Style.

Various store managers at each shopping center said shoppers

aren’t afraid to buy this year and they’re dropping serious cash for

luxury items.

At Vertigo, a French women’s clothing store in South Coast Plaza,

customers are snapping up leather and fur jackets, such as one with a

fox fur collar and rabbit fur lining for $2,800, store manager

Jessica Febles said.

Vertigo opened three months ago. Febles said she doesn’t get as

many customers as the company’s Florida stores, but “the people that

are shopping are spending more.”

Between the Sheets, a fine bedding and housewares store in Fashion

Island, listed one of its hottest items this season as cotton sheets

with a 1,020 thread count that retail at $1,299 for a four-piece set.

“We’re seeing a lot of resurgence in the [housewares] industry,”

store manager Nicole Serpico said. “Ever since [Sept. 11, 2001],

people have had that nesting thing.”

Even at South Coast Plaza’s Papyrus, a specialty card and paper

store, customers have been spending more.

The Christmas rush “started around the end of October for us,”

Papyrus manager Traci Rhodes said.

She’s seen people buying more extravagant gifts -- the store does

gift wrapping -- and holiday cards to match.

Customers will buy a box of cards that costs $30, and “they won’t

even bat an eyelash at it,” Rhodes said.

Kendra Wells of Huntington Beach, shopping at South Coast Plaza on

Friday, said she doesn’t expect to spend more on the holidays this

year, but she probably won’t spend less, either.

Instead of shopping for everyone in her big family, she only has

to buy a gift for the family member whose name she drew this year.

But she added, “I’ll probably make up for it on my son.”

“I’m probably going to spend a little bit more this year,” said

Rick Gascon of Long Beach. He stopped at Fashion Island on Friday to

visit the Sharper Image store.

The day after Thanksgiving is only the fourth busiest shopping day

of the year -- first place has been held by the Saturday before

Christmas since 1997 -- but “it’s really the day that sort of sets

the tone for the season,” Downing said.

And with good reports already coming in for November sales,

Voorheis said, “to me that indicates that it’s only going to get

better.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She can be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.