November 26, 2004
 

Striking a pose like an Olympic weightlifter, 22-month-old Paul Gutierrez of Santa Cruz sends a pleading look toward his mom as he plays with International Playthings’ Safari Tractor at Kaleidoscope, an educational game and toy store in Capitola. (Shmuel Thaler / Sentinel)

Retailers look for rebound as shopping season begins

By GWEN MICKELSON
Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ — Barbies are flying off the shelves across the country today on "Black Friday" one of the biggest holiday shopping days of the year. After all she’s got a new movie.

"She’s been doing these direct video movies the past few years," said Toys R Us spokeswoman Kelly Cullen from New York City.

Retailers say they expect this year’s sales to be better than last year thanks to a rebounding economy.

Consumers hungry for post-Thanksgiving deals have thousands of choices, but there is an "A list" of this year’s hot gifts.

"One is portable entertainment," Cullen said. "Kind of like children’s versions of adult portable items like cell phones."

The VideoNow Color personal video player looks like a little CD player with a screen and plays personal video discs with content from stars like actress and recording artist Hilary Duff, who played in Santa Cruz a year ago, and skateboarder Tony Hawk, also an area favorite.

"Parents are just loving them because it’s great for travel," Cullen said.

Updated classics also are big this year.

"We’re seeing a lot of toys getting refreshed," she said.

The faux surgery board game Operation has a new version called Operation: Shrek, based on the popular animated movie character.

A hot alternative doll to Barbie is Real Cool Girls, said Sheryl Guidera of Kaleidoscope store in Capitola.

"What everyone loves about them is they’re really pretty girls, and they’re Barbie-looking but they’re not Barbie-looking," Guidera said.

For boys, Guidera said the hot topic is still science.

"There’s a new kit out I really like called Snap Circuits Pro," she said. "It makes learning electronics easy."

Some popular dolls from yesteryear, Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Kids, are back, according to James Taylor, executive team leader at Target in Watsonville.

Tech and games
Consumers looking to gauge the hottest items this year can check the top 10 items searched for on the Internet each week at Shopping.com. Making the top five searched for items were iPod, digital camera, Sony, XBox and the video game Halo 2.

Jammie Cervantes, customer service head at Circuit City in Santa Cruz, said Apple iPod personal music player and other players from RCA, Samsung, Memorex and Panasonic are smokin’.

"Oh my God, such a big deal," she said.

Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 game systems also are big sellers, she said.

The rise in computer video games has customers seeking "the latest, greatest video cards out there," said Peter Huemer, owner of User-Friendly Computing in Santa Cruz. He said interest is running high in ATI Technologies’ All-in-Wonder card, which sharpens video graphics.

The Saitek back-lit keyboard has a programmable command pad giving gamers that extra edge. Add to that Cyborg evo Force joystick that gives game players a fully adjustable feedback stick.

For kids there’s the SpongeBob KidzMouse keyboard with software that helps kids learn to use the keyboard, and it’s spill-proof.

DVD burners, wireless accessories and system upgrades are hot items, said Huemer, and his most popular computer is the IBM ThinkPad G Series, a laptop that has built-in wireless capabilities.

Home improvement and entertainment
For the home-improvement enthusiast, "cordless drills are huge," said Kevin Ukestad, store manager for the new Watsonville Home Depot, which opened Oct. 28. Also big are air compressors and laser levels, he said.

Top-selling DVDs, according to Borders.com, include "The Lord of the Rings — Return of the King," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and the "Seinfeld" Gift Set. Top-selling CDs include U2’s new release, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," trumpeter Chris Botti’s "When I Fall in Love," and "American Idol" star Clay Aiken’s "Merry Christmas With Love."

Bookshop Santa Cruz owner Neal Coonerty said cooks have been looking for "The Gourmet Cookbook," a recipe anthology from Gourmet magazine. The store sold out of the book during its birthday sale in early November.

Also popular, said Coonerty, is Bob Dylan’s autobiography, "Chronicles, Volume 1." The "Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker," the short-story collection "Runaway" by Alice Munro and the novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe were a few more titles Coonerty said have been recent hot sellers.

Sales rebounding
Holiday sales in 2002 rose only 1.1 percent from the year before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, but rebounded in 2003, rising 4.8 percent. Area retailers said they expect to follow that course with brisk holiday sales this year.

Guidera of Kaleidoscope said she’s seen a trend toward buying big-ticket items.

"We’ve sold kids’ stoves and refrigerators early this year," she said. "People are coming in and buying the $100 microscope, the one big thing under the tree."

Huemer of User-Friendly Computing said he thinks his business will probably do 5-10 percent better than last year.

"I don’t expect it to be dramatic, but I do think there will be an increase," he said.

Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz uses the store’s birthday sale as his bellwether for holiday sales, and "it went well, so we expect holiday sales to be good," he said.

As for the brand-new Home Depot, Ukestad said the store is too new to gauge how it will do this year.

"But it’s been exceeding expectations since it opened," he said.

Contact Gwen Mickelson at gmickelson@santacruzsentinel.com.

You can find this story online at:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/November/26/local/stories/02local.htm