Sales are mixed for some Las Vegas retailers as shopping season starts

Grace Leong

Friday, Nov. 23, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

Las Vegas shoppers launched their annual holiday shopping campaigns this morning, with expectations for sales subdued because of the slowing local and national economies and terrorism fears.

The day-after-Thanksgiving action at local stores, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, was marked by many shoppers saying they were looking for bargains.

Loislee Tompkins said she spent $500 this morning at the Galleria at Sunset mall in Henderson. She budgeted up to $2,000 for holiday shopping this year.

"I'm a Christmas person. If it's a choice between paying my mortgage and Christmas, it's definitely Christmas," said Tompkins, who said she had been up since 3 a.m. planning her shopping.

Tompkins, who owns a housecleaning and maintenance business in the Las Vegas area, said she usually starts her Christmas shopping in July, but delayed her holiday shopping this year because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Usually, I would have had a lot of Christmas packages all wrapped up and packed in the closet by summer. But this year, I sat in front of the television set for a month. I became a CNN addict," she said.

Indeed, many shoppers say they are spending as much this year on holiday shopping as last year, but stressed they're bargain-hunting and buying what they need rather than in excess.

Retailers are mostly mixed about sales this year.

Kevin Smyth, assistant manager at KB-Toys at the Galleria, said sales this morning didn't meet projections.

"This is the deadest I've seen so far. Usually, we'd expect to see a line all the way to Dillard's (located two stores away.) But we're seeing fewer people this year," he said. "We've not been doing well even before the Sept. 11 attacks and after the attacks, sales went down even more."

Smyth said the store expected sales of $40,000 this year, down from $48,000 last year.

Travis Pugmire, a manager at the mall's B. Dalton bookstore, said he expects this year's sales to be even with last year's sales.

"Although Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day for a lot of retailers, our busiest day is actually on the last two weekends before Christmas," he said. "We find that if we spent more time on customer service, people will shop more readily."

Mervyn's at the Galleria, however, predicts an increase in this year's holiday sales.

"It's been great so far. We've given away 900 bauble heads (Christmas ornaments) in about eight minutes," said Vicky Sanchez, Mervyn's manager. "We were short in sales in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks but by October, sales have improved."

Chad Todaro, Mervyn's store team leader, agreed. "We're still predicting an increase in sales this year. People are spending more now because it's getting close to Christmas."

"It was a slow start to holiday buying this year, which for us, usually starts late October, because most of our guests are local residents. We did see some impact but it's coming more from the economic slowdown than the terrorist attacks," he said.

"But we now expect the Thanksgiving day and holiday sales to make up for the slow start. We're offering 40-80 percent discounts on clearance items, as well as two-for-one deals today and tomorrow."

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