Retailers: Signs point to increase in holiday spending

By Kyle B. Hansen

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010 | 2:10 a.m.

If you were standing in a line to check out of a store on Black Friday, chances are you had a lot of company.

Malls in the Las Vegas Valley reported seeing higher traffic and sales numbers than they’ve seen in a long time.

“I’ve seen lines today at the stores that I have not seen for years,” said Heather Valera, marketing director for the Galleria at Sunset mall in Henderson. “When I glance inside of the Gap, there is a line as far back as the back corner winding through the store to the cash register. I haven’t seen a line in a store like that in a couple of years.”

It was too early for exact traffic or sales numbers, but mall officials said if early crowds and talking to store managers are any indication, this year’s Christmas season will be more merry than the last.

“Our mall traffic has definitely exceeded Black Friday last year,” Valera said. “I expected an increase in traffic and sales. We’ve met that expectation and are exceeding it as the day goes on.”

It was the best day-after-Thanksgiving shopping crowd in at least three years, Valera said.

Laurie Paquette, a vice president at General Growth Properties, which operates the Fashion Show, Meadows and Boulevard malls in addition to the Shoppes at the Palazzo and Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian, said those malls saw higher traffic than in the past two years.

“It is beating our expectations,” Paquette said. “Most of my retailers are telling me that they are not only meeting their plan, but exceeding their plan.”

Crowds were waiting at stores around the valley hours before they opened, some opening as early as 10 p.m. Thursday, others at midnight, 4 or 5 a.m. Friday.

But unlike past years, mall traffic didn’t appear to decrease as the day went on, officials said.

“Typically what we saw in the last couple years was a shotgun start with really good traffic in the morning and then a little bit of a lull around 8 or 9,” Valera said. But this year, “It’s been really consistent, strong, heavy traffic all morning, since 5 a.m.”

Paquette also noticed consistency in the number of shoppers at the Boulevard, Meadows and Fashion Show malls.

“It has been solid, steady traffic,” she said. “Normally you’d see sort of a lull at some point. We have not had that lull at this point.”

The Fashion Show mall, on the Strip, typically sees a mix of customers that is about 60 percent tourists and 40 percent locals, Paquette said, but during the holiday season, those numbers flip.

“So we have a very strong local market right now and we did see a lot of people coming in for the midnight openings,” she said. “Probably not as many as we saw at Meadows and Boulevard, but definitely we still had quite a few people.”

Customers at the Shoppes at the Palazzo and Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian are about 98 percent tourists and none of the stores opened early, but they still had good traffic for a Friday in November, Paquette said.

Other retailers outside of malls reported similar crowds through the day.

The rush of people at Target at 2189 Craig Road in North Las Vegas was “pretty steady,” department manager Manny Stephens said.

“It’s been busy,” he said, “as we expected.”