COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--Dec. 27--Sales offering up to 80 percent off some clothing items had customers lined up at Mervyn's at The Citadel mall an hour before the store opened Tuesday.
It was a welcome sight to manager Elizabeth Gagliardi, who endured a roller-coaster month with sales starting slower than expected before picking up momentum and finishing strong last week.
"It was pretty amazing to watch it kick in last week," Gagliardi said. Coats and heavy winter clothes did not sell well, she said, in part because of warm weather.
But she was pleased with the season's overall sales results, given the influx of new retailers this season, including Barnes & Noble, Circuit City, Dillard's, Home Depot, Home Express and Pep Boys.
And other chains added new stores that further divided the retail pie, including JC Penney, Best Buy, Gart Sports, Home Base, Target and Office Max.
That was a big factor for Jerry Case, manager of Sears Roebuck and Co. at Chapel Hills Mall.
"We had a nice little increase -- not quite as much as in years past," Case said. "Part of that I attribute to new competition this year. It hurt everyone. But in the long run, they'll actually help us. Next year, we'll do tremendous business."
Case said electronics were this year's most popular Christmas gift -- from computers to videocasette recorders to big screen televisions to satellite dishes.
He defended retailers here and nationwide that started cutting prices early in the season to stimulate sales of slow-moving clothing.
"Nobody panicked," Case said. "We had to get our mechandise moving." The increased competition sometimes hurt the stores that expanded, such as Target. Mitch King, manager of the Target at 335 N. Academy, said his store suffered as the chain's overall area sales jumped with the opening of its third local store.
"The new store hurt my store's numbers," he said. "But we did exactly what we planned to do."
A "healthy increase" in sales was reported at Wal-Mart near Chapel Hills. "Sales went real well," said manager Keith Mays. "There weren't any major blowouts this year except Holiday Barbie. They couldn't keep up with demand. We sold certificates with pictures of the doll, for $27 to $30. They will mail Barbie to the customer's home."
Mall officials echoed the retailers' assessments. "Traffic for us was up and sales were up slightly," said Tom Gordon, assistant general manager of Chapel Hills. "It was good compared to the rest of the country. It got depressing listening to national reports because that wasn't happening here."
At The Citadel, traffic was as strong as ever but individuals spent less than usual, said general manager Robert Taylor.
"Per-person sales weren't nearly as great as we'd seen in past years," Taylor said. "And merchants may not have as high a profit margin this year because they put things on sale a lot quicker. It was a good year for consumers and bargain-hunting."
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