Robust sales encourage local store owners

As the dust cleared after last weekend’s holiday shopping extravaganzas at South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island, shops in both centers are reporting positive figures outdoing sales performances last year.

A report released this week by the National Retail Federation reported retailers having a profitable Black Friday weekend — typically the day after Thanksgiving is considered the first official shopping day of the holiday season.

And the national figures seem indicative of what happened in Newport-Mesa. Holiday shoppers, many of whom were not residents of either city, came out in full force over the weekend.

South Coast Plaza spokeswoman Debra Gunn Downing said about 200,000 people trudged through the Costa Mesa shopping center over the course of the three-day weekend.

“It’s significantly more than a typical weekend,” Gunn Downing said Thursday. Compared with last year, she said, sales are up 8% or 9%.

Fashion Island also reported a busy weekend, although representatives didn’t have any specific traffic estimates and declined to release sales figures. Those for South Coast Plaza were not available Thursday.

“Friday was amazing, it was a super-great day — good business and great traffic,” Fashion Island Bloomingdale’s spokeswoman Erin Bianchi said Thursday. “It exceeded our expectations, and since then it’s been continuing.”

Federated Department Stores Inc., Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s parent company, reported on Thursday stronger sales than were expected in November.

Luxury stores at each center were busy all weekend and through this week.

“It’s good — it’s up,” Fashion Island’s Traditional Jewelers owner Marion Halfacre said about holiday traffic and sales. “The whole season going into Christmas is well up, so it’s following the same kind of trends we’ve been doing the whole year.”

Halfacre said sales were up by double digits although traffic seemed to be about the same in his store.

But Dooney & Burke store manager Leslie Wheeler said this year’s Black Friday sales did not meet last year’s standard at the South Coast Plaza store, but that traffic remained consistent through Thursday.

“We tend to pick up as we get closer to Christmas in the second or third week in December,” Wheeler said.

In Orange County, economists predicted holiday sales to increase by about 5.5%, which indicates a weaker bump in sales than the retail industry has experienced in past years.

But overall, retailers at Newport-Mesa shopping centers said they expect strong holiday sales to continue through December.

The report released by National Retail Federation said shoppers were taking advantage of electronics, something Gunn Downing said was a very popular sell at South Coast Plaza.

Their high-end luxury boutiques also had a successful weekend, she said.

Store employees continue to gear up for a bustling shopping month with the busiest days to come. This week, even a light morning rain didn’t keep shoppers away from Fashion Island, an outdoor mall, Bianchi said.

“It’s a good indication of what’s to come,” she said.