Orange County shopping centers still are adding sales for the 2000 holiday season but already officials say they expect growth to be more tepid than a year ago.
The Irvine Company, which operates Fashion Island, The Market Place Tustin/Irvine, the Irvine Spectrum Center and 27 neighborhood centers, expects holiday sales to come in around 3% higher than in 1999, according to Rick Evans, president of the company’s retail division
“We don’t have any real reports in from retailers, but we are gathering them together and we believe we’ve had a very, very nice season,” Evans said.
A year ago, Irvine Co. reported a 4.4% increase in holiday sales. For the year, Evans said he projects an overall 8.5% increase in sales for the Irvine Co.’s retail division for 2000.
Richard McKeown, Brea Mall’s general manager, said newly opened stores helped contribute to a busy December. Abercrombie & Fitch and the Pottery Barn opened in November in Brea, while an expanded Williams-Sonoma opened in September.
“We had a huge increase in traffic and sales that were consistent with the national average, but it’s too early to know for sure,” McKeown said.
For all of 1999, Brea Mall reported a 4% increase in sales to $394.5 million and ranked third on the Business Journal’s list of shopping centers.
Officials at the newly renovated Shops at Mission Viejo say they expect a strong 2000 holiday season in part because the center had only just completed an expansion last season.
“The holiday season rounded out a solid year for The Shops at Mission Viejo,” said spokeswoman Judy Bullockus. “While we’re still in our infancy as a new center and there is a re-education process for the consumer to realize there is a great shopping destination in south OC.”
Home furnishings, children’s clothes, beauty products and leather goods were top sellers, Bullockus said.
When final numbers are in, OC shopping centers could see results fall in line with a national trend toward slower growth that falls short of projections. According to the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation, sales for the holiday season increased 5.3% from the year-ago period, down slightly from predictions of 6% growth. Holiday sales in 1999, fueled by a still-hot economy, surged 7.3% nationally from the prior period.
The holiday shopping season is crucial to retailers. Among non-anchor stores, the months of November and December account for 27% of total yearly sales, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers.
The industry group reported a 2.2% increase in sales among non-anchor retailers at shopping centers this season led by shoe sales, which were up 8%, followed by toys and sporting goods, both up 4.5%, and apparel, up 3%.
Additionally, the number of checks written by shoppers to buy gifts was up 3.2% from 1999, according to TeleCheck Service. But this year’s growth was roughly half of last year’s increase, marking yet another sign of a slower season because consumers who use checks typically account for roughly a third of all holiday sales, according to TeleCheck. n
