New Stores Drive Holiday Sales Hike

By Ed Moosbrugger

February 9 -- It wasn’t easy, but Downtown Santa Monica retailers generally scored increased sales during the Christmas holiday season.

Heavy rains in late December and early January, however, put a bit of a damper on retail activity, making it difficult for store owners to gauge the outlook for 2005.

“It was a struggle last holiday season until the last week,” said Naren Patel, owner of Shiva Imports on the Third Street Promenade. Shoppers apparently were waiting for sales.

But then, Patel said, there was a last minute rush of panic buying just before Christmas. Patel reported his holiday season sales were up about 5 percent from 2003, as were sales for the year.

At Puzzle Zoo on the Promenade, “the holidays went well,” said owner Jay Demircift.

Sales at the busy toy store rose about 6 percent in 2004. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Demircift said. “I was pleased.”

Owner William Bubar reported a good holiday season at Bubar’s Jewelry on Fourth Street, with sales up a little from 2003.

The store, now in its 60th year, has been attracting a new, younger clientele, while also serving long-time customers, Bubar reported. He noted activity picked up on Fourth Street.

When final sales tax results are in, Downtown probably will post a strong increase, partly because of new stores.

But while Downtown showed sales gains, retailers said they had to work hard to capture the consumer dollar, and not all stores were pleased with holiday results.

“You have to work harder with customers to make sales,” Patel said. He also gave sales a boost with new inventory and a new look.

Mike Ayoub, owner of Gift Time on the Promenade, said sales leading up to Christmas were about the same as in 2003, but rains after Christmas “kind of killed us.” After-Christmas sales are an important part of the holiday season for retailers.

“Our expectation was higher than what we got,” Ayoub said. “It could be the economy, competition, the Internet.”

Retail chains usually don’t reveal results for individual stores, so it’s hard to tell exactly how these stores in Santa Monica performed during the holidays.

But there are indications of mixed results.

No doubt the Apple Computer store on the Promenade had a strong holiday season, because Apple had one of the hottest products on the market, the iPod music player, and Apple’s iMac desktop computers also had a strong season.

With a heavy concentration of apparel stores Downtown, individual store performances likely varied widely because of fickle consumers. Two of the hottest retailers nationally during December were American Eagle Outfitters and Bebe Stores, and both have stores on the Promenade.

But some other chains with stores Downtown didn’t fare nearly as well.

One apparel store said business didn’t live up to expectations during the holidays, but there also was some good news. With new merchandise, the store is off to a “fabulous” start for 2005.

Retailers are a bit unclear on what the new year holds for them, because the unusually wet weather for part of January discouraged some shoppers.

“The rains just put a damper on it,” Demircift said. “I can’t gauge it.” Still, he is optimistic about 2005.

While some retailers lamented the heavy rains, Patel wasn’t one of them. “The rainy days are best for my store,” he said. “The serious shoppers are out.”

Patel noted a bit of a change at the beginning of 2005. “This year most of us put things on sale earlier than usual,” he said. “People are shopping now because things are on sale.”

SANTA MONICA HOTELS received a boost from the American Film Market in November, with the city’s hotel occupancy rate for the month rising 6.4 percent from a year earlier to 71.8 percent. The average daily room rate soared 20.6 percent to $222.19, according to PKF Consulting.

The AFM, an eight-day event that draws about 7,000 people, moved to a November date in 2004. The event drew a record number of buyers and exhibitors last year for its November 3 to 10 run.

For the first 11 months of 2004, Santa Monica hotels posted an occupancy rate of 79.3 percent, up 3.5 percent from a year earlier. The average room rate jumped 9.2 percent to $208.59.