Santa Gets Firsthand Look at Consumer Cutbacks

Santa says economic woes evident among holiday shoppers in the most troubled housing markets

Robert Ecker was bored with retirement, so he went back to work as a housing appraiser in Stockton, Calif. He trained four other appraisers during the real estate boom -- all of them are now out of the business.
"Since the real estate market closed down, I grew a beard and now I'm doing this," said Ecker, dressed in the trademark red suit with white trim.
"The older kids are asking for clothes now, rather than gifts," he said. "Most of them are asking for one gift."
From Stockton to Miami, from ritzy Las Vegas to gritty Detroit, cities with the worst real estate markets led the U.S. economy into recession. Skidding home prices and soaring foreclosures have magnified the broader woes of unemployment, stock market turmoil and hard-to-get loans. Holiday shoppers are making a list, checking it twice, and then scratching off the nonessentials.

"I used to buy what I need and what I like: a lot of shoes, clothes in general -- I love clothes," said Stephanie Guzman, who works at the Wireless Image kiosk at the Weberstown mall near Stockton. "I only buy what I need now -- I don't have money."
Last Friday, the Commerce Department said retail sales fell by almost 2 percent in November. It was the fifth month in a row -- a period of weakness never before seen on the government's retail sales records.
Stockton resident Debbie Rooker is shopping, but for more practical gifts this year.

"Less electronics and more clothing," said Rooker, whose family lives on her husband's pension and savings from his career as a firefighter. "We got a rocking chair for one daughter and a frying pan -- a nice one -- for a son."
At the Westland Mall in Hialeah, Fla., northwest of Miami, Katherine Cuevas and her husband run two kiosks, one selling perfume and cologne, the other hawking child's gifts like toy laser guns and fire engines.
Business is off 40 percent from last year, and the Cuevases have had to let go one of their employees and put in longer hours themselves.
"If you can't pay your mortgage on time, how are you going to spend your money on perfume? They'll make one perfume bottle last a year," said Katherine, 36.

Consumer cutbacks are affecting stores of all sizes this year. Among the early casualties: Sharper Image, Linens 'N Things and Circuit City, which are all in some stage of bankruptcy.
At the Dolphin Mall in the Miami area, general manager Pete Marrero says sales at the outlet stores have been buoyed by international visitors, but home goods may fall short of expectations.
One reason is that housewares retailer Linens 'N Things is closing its store there.
"This is sad to watch," says George Schafer, a retiree who sits in front of Linens 'N Things as he waits for his wife to plumb the store's massive discounts.
A few miles east in Coral Gables, Fla., the sidewalks of swanky Miracle Mile look like bowling lanes -- wide and empty. Lined with restaurants and shops that sell expensive jewelry and apparel, Miracle Mile has at least six store vacancies, including a Qdoba Mexican Grill and what once was an upscale furniture store.

Yaime Diaz, manager of a store that sells multi-pocketed Cuban-style shirts known as "guayaberas," says she's noticed that foot traffic is down on Miracle Mile.
"It's just not the same as last year," she says, surrounded by shirts colored blue, yellow and red -- hues that contrast with the drab wooden plywood covering the windows of the shuttered furniture store just steps away.
One of the few cities with more foreclosures than Miami is Las Vegas. In the suburb of Henderson, a La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries store near the edge of a large shopping mall was empty on a Sunday afternoon, though the mall itself was fairly busy.
La-Z-Boy announced last month it would close some 15 to 20 stores and cut about 850 jobs. Store manager Kevin Durney said his financing department was turning down some customers looking to borrow money to pay for furniture who would have qualified with the same credit score last year.

"The spendable income isn't there," Durney said. "It's a little harder for (shoppers) to make decisions."
Economic worries certainly have engulfed Detroit and its suburbs, as the Big Three automakers seek to stave off the Grinch by asking for a government bailout of their industry.
In Harper Woods, Mich., the watches and belt buckles at Buckles Unlimited sparkle like ornaments on a Christmas tree. Owner Adam Naseh says he used to sell 100 belt buckles a day, but now is selling 20 or 30.

"People are basically afraid of investing, of spending money," he said.
The housing market, the economy, the auto industry -- the list is enough to stress out any merchant. And the shoppers are even more harried. Just ask the Santa Claus who has worked a Detroit-area mall for the past five years.

"The kids are fine," he said, sipping coffee in full Santa gear. "The parents are nuts."
Associated Press Writers Donald Thompson in Stockton, Calif., Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas and Ben Leubsdorf in Michigan contributed to this report.

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