Upbeat Spirit Greets Opening of Retail Season

Buoyed by signs of an improving economy and fed up with belt-tightening, the nation’s shoppers made the traditional opening day of the Christmas retail season the brightest in several years, although many were seeking bargains Friday, not status symbols.

Shoppers even ventured out in large numbers into the languishing malls of Southern California, undaunted by an early morning 5.4 aftershock near Big Bear and an economic recovery that lags behind the rest of the country.

“Hey, the country’s changing,” said Bill Gwinn, 36, who strolled the South Bay Pavilion in Carson. “The economy is getting a little better and my own economy is a little better. So why not splurge a little?”

Bill Clinton helped kick off the season by paying a visit to the Glendale Galleria, as new government reports on the economy prepared a welcome basket of good news for the incoming President. The Commerce Department said Friday that personal incomes jumped 1% in October, the biggest rise in 10 months.

As shoppers headed out to do their part for the November statistics, the government also reported that consumer spending was up 0.7% in October, following a significant rise in September.

Across the country, many shoppers said the prospect of a new President gave them hope. “I believe the economy will be improving soon,” said Robert Kegler, a retired General Motors press operator, as he shopped in Detroit. “The change in the presidency will make a difference.”

But shoppers also said they planned to be careful, restraining themselves in many cases by sticking to cash, not credit cards, for purchases. Others said they will hold back until they see stronger signs of economic recovery.

The theme of the day was clearly value for the money. Whether they were shopping for Baccarat crystal in Beverly Hills boutiques or Barbies in K marts, shoppers pulled out their wallets for good prices and turned their noses up at noncompetitive price tags.

With the tone set by a President-elect known more for his tastes in junk food than high fashion, and by First Lady-to-be Hillary Clinton, known for her stylish but dollar-conscious, off-the-rack habits, shoppers headed in droves for discount stores. What Nancy Reagan did for Lenox china and Adolfo dresses in the 1980s, Bill Clinton may do for the Wal-Marts of the world.

At the Southcenter Mall in Seattle, the longest wait was in a line at the cash register of a store called “Everything’s a Dollar.”

At Wal-Mart in Little Rock and K marts in Los Angeles, parking lots were nearly full by the time they opened at 7 a.m. At a K mart in South-Central Los Angeles, a small crowd waited outside for doors to open, and later shoppers were forced to park in the surrounding neighborhood and walk into the plaza. The store was so jammed that up to 20 people waited in each line to check out.

Many Mervyn’s stores reported strong sales as shoppers lined up for advertised specials. At 8:15 a.m., 57-year-old Cyrell Schwartzbaum was standing in a line of shoppers 18 deep so she could buy her granddaughter a 101 Dalmatians pants set at Mervyn’s in the Glendale Galleria.

“I think it’s insane,” she said, surveying the crowd. “I think people are looking for bargains.”

Even stores catering to the well-to-do found that people responded to discounts. At upscale tableware merchant Geary’s Beverly Hills, “we’re not doing good, we’re doing superb,” said President Bruce Meyer, who has cut prices sharply this year.

By 4 p.m., the store had sold a dozen diamond and ruby-encrusted Faberge eggs at $1,500 to $8,000 apiece. Although volume was up, Meyer said, “we’ve reduced our margins substantially. It’s a price-driven market.” A Wedgwood china place setting he sold for $149 last year is offered this year at $109.95.

After several bruising years of adjusting to the consumer austerity that followed the roaring ‘80s, retailers are rolling out more sales and Santa Clauses than ever to lure cowering shoppers out of their homes--and hoping that the dollars will follow.

In Southern California, the Broadway promised shoppers a $10 gift certificate for every $100 spent this weekend, and offered to delay payments on purchases until March, interest-free. In Atlanta, the tony Phipps Plaza mall found that a “real” 250-pound Santa--with home-grown white beard and genuine paunch--drew the crowds but could not force them to spend.

And at the leviathan Mall of America near Minneapolis, the biggest shopping/entertainment complex in the United States, Santa held court from Snoopy’s doghouse with a 40-foot Christmas tree poking through its roof, as 1,300 stuffed Snoopys floated in wreaths throughout the 4.2-million- square-foot center.

A recorded message to the media that was updated hourly reported visitation figures and traffic conditions. Its noon bulletin announced: “There are currently 55,000 people in the center. The numbers are growing but it’s still a comfortable crowd size. . . . Some on-site parking remains.”

At the megamall, which opened in August amid much hoopla, the indoor amusement park--Knott’s Camp Snoopy--was attracting throngs to its silicone-wheeled roller coasters, but not everyone was leaving the mall with full shopping bags.

The pursuit of health, not goodies, was why Olga Kroh and her husband, Zoltan, came to the Beverly Center. Kroh finished a two-mile walking course through the center and sat outside Bullock’s to wait for her husband to finish one more mile. They left having spent only the sweat of their brows.

“I’ve noticed a lot of people walking around doing a lot of looking but no one seems to be buying--you don’t see people carrying (armfuls of) bags,” said Joanne Blandford, a Coronado mother of three who was shopping at San Diego’s Horton Plaza early Friday afternoon.

But despite the gawkers and walkers, experts remained cautiously optimistic about the holiday retail season, which traditionally makes up 50% of annual retail sales. “I think it’s going to be a good season,” said Robert Kahn, publisher of Retailing Today.

He said that although unemployment remains high in California, a reduction in uncertainty now that so many layoffs have been announced may contribute to stronger retail sales. Kahn noted that by this time last year, GM, Sears and IBM had announced plans for tens of thousands of layoffs, often without specifying where or when they would be made, casting a pall over everyone.

“Now, a contract gets cut back and aerospace contractors lay off 2,500 people and it’s pretty specific; you know who you are. People who (aren’t part of the group to be laid off) have more confidence they’ll be employed in March or April,” Kahn said.

Hughes engineer Hyungsik Kim, 52, still has his worries though, and said he plans to spend a little less on Christmas gifts than last year. He leaned against a post reading Milton’s “Paradise Lost” at the Broadway in the Glendale Galleria as his wife rifled through women’s sweaters. “I hear optimism, but I don’t know about myself,” Kim said.

Stories of jobs lost, and fears of loss, still abounded despite the slight lift in the consumer mood.

“The economy seems to be picking up, but not for our family,” Blandford said at Horton Plaza. “My husband is a commander in the Navy and he’s apprehensive about what the future holds. You just don’t know what’s around the corner.”

Barbara Richter, 50, the assistant to the director of special education programs in Colorado, still stings from the difficulty she had trying to pay the mortgage and other bills while her husband looked for work after getting laid off two years ago. “I’ve given a lot of thought to every gift,” Richter said in Denver.

This economic wariness is shared by Ken Kirby, 29, of Seattle. For the last two Christmases he was an unemployed steel worker. Through a federal job retraining program he has become a computer technician. “We’re just getting back on our feet. I’ve only been employed for four months . . .” “Making half of what he used to,” interjected his wife, Dede-- “. . . and I don’t want to be in a position again where everything comes crashing down around us.”

Irma Reyes, although she wandered a Santa Ana mall, said she will not be buying any gifts this year for her four children. “The economy is bad, I was laid off my job, and everything is bad this year,” she said.

Cheri Bui, 23, a business student at Cal State Northridge, is also looking at a tighter Christmas budget this year. Bui lives with her parents in Canoga Park and works part time as a student assistant at the university. But her school is facing budget constraints, and she is feeling it. “They cut down my hours of work, and there’s not as much overtime,” she said. So this year, Bui plans to pare her Christmas present list in half.

Lauren Lott, however, was more optimistic.

The Torrance resident, shopping at the South Bay Pavilion at Carson, said she spent about $400 last year and, with a wince, said she would probably match that this year.

“I know I should be saving but the season gets to me,” Lott said. She paused, then added with a laugh: “And the stores get my money.”

The following Times staff writers and correspondents contributed to this story: Randal C. Archibold, Mary Guthrie, Chris Kraul, Mimi Ko, Andrew LePage, Don Lee, Tom McQueeney, Otto Strong, Renee Tawa, Chris Woodyard, Doug Conner in Seattle, Ann Rovin in Denver, Edith Stanley in Atlanta, George White in Detroit and Chris Wylie in Little Rock.

INCOMES, SPENDING RISE: Incomes were up 1% and spending 0.7% in October, the Commerce Dept. reported. D1