Posted on: Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Hawai'i retailers pleased by holiday sales

By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i retailers were breathing a careful sigh of relief yesterday after Thanksgiving weekend's official start of the holiday shopping season left them with sales the same or better than last year.

"We're very happy with the sales for Friday, Saturday and Sunday," said Kunia Wal-Mart store manager Walter Lott.

Lott estimated sales rose "in the high single digits" compared to the same time last year, and said that by 5:45 a.m. Friday he had to stop letting people into the store because of the crowd.

"This was the 12th blitz (post-Thanksgiving) sale I've been through ... and I've never seen that many people shopping in one place — ever," he said. "In the current economic environment, just to be up is good, and we're doing better than that."

The local sales for Wal-Mart helped push the company to a nationwide sales record for the day as consumers rushed to take advantage of discounts. However, in other stores nationally this was not the case.

The International Council of Shopping Centers reported the season getting off to a "soft start," with sales in mall specialty stores decreasing 1.5 percent compared with the same period last year. The ICSC includes sales results from more than 4,000 stores in regional malls across the country.

In Hawai'i, Carol Pregill, executive director of the Retail Merchants of Hawai'i, was optimistic about the weekend's sales results.

"Friday was exciting; there was traffic and there were shoppers. That's coming from all the malls. The consensus seems to be that Friday was good," Pregill said.

Pregill said she had not yet received reports from retailers for the entire weekend, however.

Robin Lo, store manager at KB Toys Ala Moana Center, knows the importance of this time of the year. And the weekend pleased her.

"Even now, there's a line to pay," Lo said yesterday afternoon. "I was kind of hesitant because prior to this, sales had slowed. But people are spending a lot more than I anticipated."

Lo said that the average value of transactions was higher than last year, and sales in general were up from last year.

"(The weekend) was better than expected," she said.

Pier 1 Imports also reported an increase in sales from last year. Jeffrey Trinh, associate store manager, credited the gain in store traffic to items that add warmth to people's homes. Candles, he said, were especially popular.

Jonathan Kim, general manager at Windward Mall, said he took an informal poll of the merchants.

"For the most part, everything seems positive," said Kim. "In some cases they exceeded their numbers from last year, which is encouraging."

The traffic counter showed an increase of 5,495 people at the mall on Friday, Kim said. For the entire weekend, attendance was up from last year by 11,406. While Kim attributed some of this to Signature Theatres, which were not there last year, and to the live entertainment the mall provided, he said retailers remained "cautiously optimistic."

Laurie Hara, marketing director at K?hala Mall, expressed similar sentiments. She said she thought that traffic was more consistent than it was at this time last year, and the Friday after Thanksgiving was particularly good.

Because of the entertainment, food merchants like California Pizza Kitchen and Jamba Juice did well. In retail, big markdowns highlighted the start of the Christmas shopping season in an effort to "induce people to do their shopping a little earlier," said Hara.

"We're off to a good start," she said. "That's all we can ask for."

But some Hawai'i stores that did not offer discounts felt the sting.

"(Sales are) down, unfortunately," said Terry Wong, owner of three Hickory Farms stores on O'ahu. Wong said that the weekend after Thanksgiving has always been successful, and historically the store delays price cuts until later in the season.

But this year it meant a decrease in sales by 10 percent compared to last year.

There may be hope for Hickory Farms yet, however, as comfort foods have been a hot gift item since Sept. 11.

Michael Cummins, co-owner of Honolulu Chocolate Co. in Ward Centre, said that while his tourist traffic has decreased, residents seem to be making up the difference.

"People are treating themselves," said Cummins, who said he had not run the weekend totals against previous years, but suspected the store did "at least as well as last year." The big sellers included hand-dipped truffles and the coconut macadamia haystack.