Area sales defy U.S. trends

Alicia Robinson

Locals apparently didn’t stop shopping after the holidays, which

helped local stores flout the national trend of decreasing sales in

January.

Advance January figures announced Thursday by the U.S. Department

of Commerce showed a nationwide decrease of 0.3% in retail and food

service sales in December, with the biggest decrease in the

automotive sector. Sectors that showed between 1% and 3% increases

included clothing and accessories stores, food and beverage stores,

restaurants and retailers of sporting goods, hobby items, books and

music.

Retail experts said shoppers continued to buy in Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa, communities largely untouched by the country’s earlier

economic slump.

“My sense overall is that as we turned the corner into 2004, I

think that consumer confidence was on the rise,” said Tony Cherbak, a

partner in the consumer products group at Deloitte & Touche’s Costa

Mesa office. “I think people feel pretty good about the direction of

the economy.”

While no hard numbers are in yet, the Irvine Co.’s retail venues

are reporting a profitable beginning to 2004, spokeswoman Jennifer

Hieger said.

“Anecdotally, what we’re hearing is that January was unusually

strong as compared to previous Januaries, and one of the key reasons,

we believe, is the sense that the economy is improving, so people in

turn are spending more than they have in the past,” she said.

The Irvine Co.’s Fashion Island is one of the major economic

drivers of the area, along with South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Home furnishing sales were particularly strong, possibly because

of the strong housing market, and restaurants did well across the

board, Hieger said.

But the downturn in auto sales might indicate that consumers have

deeper worries about job prospects, which haven’t improved as fast as

the rest of the economy, UC Irvine marketing professor Mary Gilly

said.

Purchases of durable goods such as cars and appliances are easier

to put off when people are concerned about job security or finding

jobs, she said.

“I’d be concerned if any kind of durable sales were down, because

that looks like pessimism in terms of people’s economic situation,”

Gilly said.