Consumers start early, cram California retailers

"The best sales were today so we woke up early to beat the rush," said Billy Johnson, 34, as he lugged huge bags of toys out of Kay Bee Toys at Los Angeles' Beverly Center.

The Kay Bee store in Sacramento's downtown plaza shopping center opened at 5 a.m.

"Some of these people almost need a pack mule to get to the car," said clerk Bob Perrigo, directing traffic in the store, where scooters and a robot puppy were hot items.

"It was crazy," said Jenny Richards, who arrived there at 6:30 a.m. "The lines were all the way to the back of the store."

A big crowd formed early at the sprawling Ontario Mills complex of outlet stores by Interstates 10 and 15 in western San Bernardino County. A toy store queue snaked out a door and down an escalator at the Glendale Galleria in suburban Los Angeles.

Aisles were packed Macy's at San Francisco's Union Square, where shopper Melissa Ignacio, 23, was already laden with gifts and still had more to buy.

"Today I'm planning to spend $500, but throughout the Christmas season I'll probably spend like, $1,000," Ignacio said. "So far I've spent like $200."

Ana Barahona, 45, was impressed by the discounts at the San Francisco Macy's.

"Everything is cheaper today, look," she said. "Twenty-five, 50 percent off."

Retailers entered the holiday season with a tough task trying to beat 1999, considered one of the best seasons ever.

Macy's stores were doing well, said Rina Neiman, director of public relations in San Francisco.

Last year, Macy's projected it would do 3 percent to 3.5 percent better than 1998, and ended up doing 6 percent better, she said. This year Macy's again projected a 3 percent to 3.5 percent increase, expecting people to continue spending on items like crystal, leather jackets, cashmere sweaters and other indicators of good times.

"We're still cautiously optimistic about sales," she said. "We still have a few weeks to go before Christmas. But we are pleasantly surprised with how the day is going so far."

Jackie Fernandez, a partner with the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche who was observing at the Glendale mall, said a consumer survey showed that 82 percent of shoppers planned to spend the same or more than they did last year.

Nationally, consumers plan to spend an average of $836 on holiday gifts compared to $849 last year, according to the survey.

"Last year is a hard year to top," Fernandez said. "There will probably be a little bit of a dent in sales this year trying to match last year's figures."

Fernandez said there were some "dark clouds" including uncertainty about the presidency, the drop in the Nasdaq stock market and high gas prices in California.

The survey also found that about 50 percent of consumers will spend most of their gift budget at discount department stores.<