RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Shoppers filled Ala Moana Center on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Shoppers say deals
rare this holiday

Mall managers say retailers are
better at avoiding markdowns

For Fran Tomi this year's mall crowds and lines weren't worth the wait.

The Nuuanu resident says she is a longtime last-minute Christmas shopper mostly because she likes a good bargain. But this weekend -- traditionally the biggest shopping days before the holiday -- she was left disappointed.

"Last year, there were more sales," she said with a sigh. "They could at least loosen up a little more."

Thousands of shoppers flocked to Oahu malls this weekend, the last before Christmas. Although there were no totals available yet, retailers were expecting sales to reach new highs on Saturday, judging by crowd sizes and the strength of holiday sales so far this year.

But many shoppers said stores were not knocking down prices as much as in years past, which retail analysts say could be a product of stores keeping more managed inventories.

Several stores at Ala Moana Center had no discounts posted this weekend.

Many were giving small markdowns on select items. There were a few deep-discount sales -- with some items at Macy's and Sears flying out the door at half to 75 percent off -- but shoppers said they seemed to be the exceptions.

"The stores with less stuff don't have that much sales," Richie Gano said as he took a cigarette break near Neiman Marcus at Ala Moana Center.

"Last year was a lot better, a lot more sales," he added.

The Kauai resident flew in during the weekend to shop for relatives and friends. By Saturday afternoon he had found a couple of good buys, "but not as much as I'd hoped."

Janice Kobayashi of Molokai was also shopping at Ala Moana. She had just come back from the mainland, where it seemed "there were a lot more sales."

Ala Moana's general manager, Dwight Yoshimura, attributed the apparent drop in discounts this season to stores getting "better in inventory control."

He said rather than buying too much and having to sell it at discounted prices, stores appeared to be buying just enough this Christmas and keeping prices steady.

He also said holiday shopping started earlier this year, and consumer traffic had been nearly uniformly heavy, which could also be keeping prices up. "It's consistently crowded," Yoshimura said. "Almost every retailer has a significant increase in sales from last year ... and people just conservatively plan their inventories."

Scott Creel, marketing director for MMI Realty Services Inc., which manages Pearlridge, Kahala Mall, Aloha Tower Market Place, Hawaii Kai Towne Center and Kamehameha Shopping Center, said he had also seen fewer deep discounts this holiday season than in previous years.

"That's a positive sign," he said. "I think the economy is helping."

But that is not good news for die-hard bargain shoppers like Vivian Tadeo.

"It's the same as the Christmas trees," she said, alluding to a statewide tree shortage that has pushed up prices.

Carol Pregill, president of the Hawaii Retail Merchants Association, which represents more than 2,000 storefronts on Oahu, said she had seen a number of annual promotions but not "a lot of lowest-prices-ever kind of stuff."

She said the decrease in markdowns so close to Christmas could mean the marketplace has "reached the leveling-off of prices and competition." Consumers know where to go if they want high-end, midlevel or "value center" gifts, she said.

It also appears people are willing to spend more this Christmas, with the economy up and unemployment down in the islands, she said.

Some shoppers, though, said they did find some great sales this weekend.

"Keep the incentives coming," said Kathleen Souza, of Nuuanu, as she shopped with a friend at Ala Moana. The two had huge bags of gifts, some of which were for themselves.

They said they had managed to find deep discounts, even if they had to look harder this Christmas.

Others were not too disturbed about having to pay top dollar so close to the holiday.

"You just got to ... get what you pay for," said Fred Tamayo, who was shopping with family this weekend. "If you're lucky, you're lucky."

And Tomi, with a small bag in hand, said she was rethinking her dedication to last-minute shopping because of her failure to find stellar bargains this season.

Next year, she said, she might just finish her list before the Christmas rush.