Quake victims' rebuilding causes retail sales surge: stores hire additional help to handle post-quake flurry.

Consumers are flocking to home improvement, houseware, furniture and electronics stores to replace and repair goods damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Home Depot in Canoga Park has hired 100 extra employees since the earthquake to deal with increased customer traffic, said assistant manager Matt Salerno.

Customers had been buying mostly tools, nuts, bolts, nails, screws and other hardware items. Now their purchases are shifting to windows, doors and raw building materials, such as drywall and cement, Salerno said.

At Home Base, also in Canoga Park, sales are up 50 percent over this time last year, said manager Richard Jerkovich.

Home Base is primarily selling materials to rebuild fences, fix roofs and repair broken glass, Jerkovich said, noting that most Federal Emergency Management Agency money for major construction has not yet been allocated.

A-Wahl's Building Materials Inc. in Sun Valley is also mostly selling fencing materials. The business is "keeping every truck moving every day" and having its drivers work overtime, said assistant manager Tom Young.

At Ace Hardware in Sylmar, "We're quite busy, and I don't have time to talk" because of earthquake-related business, said an employee who answered the phone and didn't give his name.

Consumers are also buying housewares to replace those that broke. Crate & Barrel's "Los Angeles stores in particular have experienced an increase" in sales because of earthquake-related purchases, said Judy Everhart, regional manager of the Northbrook, Ill.-based chain.

"Lots of people are opting for the most durable dinnerware and the most durable glassware," she said, adding that they are also buying the least expensive.

Almost & Perfect English China in Sherman Oaks is experiencing a "slight increase" in sales over this time last year. "People are replacing their china and crystal," owner Ruth Hertz said.

And at Ikea in Burbank, customers are buying "anything replaceable in the kitchen," said store manager Gary Ternes.

Ikea customers are also gravitating toward storage units, such as bookcases and furniture to house home entertainment centers. They need shelving on which to put articles that weren't damaged, Ternes said.

At Crate & Barrel, customers are buying furniture that would most likely withstand another earthquake, Everhart said. For example, they are looking for low, wide bookcases instead of tall, narrow ones.

At the JC Penney Catalog Outlet in the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills, "every time we get furniture in, we sell it right out," said store manager Kathy Baum.

Electronics stores, meanwhile, are busy repairing home electronics damaged in the earthquake, rather than selling new units.

"Most people are just getting their stuff repaired," said Joey Valvo, owner of Thrifty Electronics in Van Nuys. Repair work at the store is up 100 percent over the like period of 1993, he said.

Employees at Audio Den, also in Van Nuys, are making more service calls to diagnose earthquake-related problems with customers' stereos and to re-install those systems, said manager Mark Smith.

As far as actual sales are concerned, at Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City, "February's sales growth reflects strong comparable-store sales (excluding sales resulting from new stores) in markets throughout the country and especially strong growth in the Los Angeles market following the earthquake," according to a company statement.