RETAILERS EXPECT PRE-HOLIDAY FRENZY.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Retailers are bracing themselves for heavy traffic for the rest of the holiday season as procrastinators begin to hit the malls, retailers and analysts predicted Monday.

Though sales have been decent, considering the overall economic climate this year, experts expect a mad rush during the closing days of the season.

Tight times prompted shoppers to hold off and look for bigger discounts, and the longest shopping season in recent memory gave them ample time to do so.

Things have been heating up at Caruso Affiliated Holdings' properties in Calabasas and Westlake Village recently, as shoppers shift into high gear.

Rick Lemmo, Caruso's vice president of corporate communications, attributes this to bargain hunters who held out for the biggest deals. Though this will provide a late infusion of business, it has limited sales early on.

``Retailers confuse me because they train the public, but they don't like what they've trained,'' Lemmo said. ``They want people to shop, but they have those huge discounts at the end. The average public figures what the heck, we'll keep our eyes open.''

This has proved true across the region.

``We anticipate it to be very busy in the next week,'' said Diana Reeves, marketing director for the Antelope Valley Mall. ``In previous years, there was more shopping earlier, but this year, people are waiting a little longer. I think everyone's a little reserved in their spending, and they want to see what sales the merchants will offer.''

Check-acceptance firm TeleCheck reported Monday that sales since Thanksgiving rose 1.8 percent over the same period last year. A large, late increase would make good its prediction of a total 2 percent increase for the entire season.

``The real rush is coming now; we've passed the midseason slump,'' said Bill Ford, the firm's senior economic adviser. ``A lot of people look at the calendar and think they can wait until Christmas Eve if they get really desperate. That's a really bad idea, though, because the stores are going to be jammed and then they're going to close early.''

The chief culprits in the last-minute shopping craze are men, according to retail expert Brent Schoenbaum of Deloitte & Touche's Los Angeles office.

``In the end, men tend to postpone their purchases till the week before Christmas,'' he said. ``The men still have yet to spend what they'd planned, so those sales will be in the next seven to 10 days. We tend to be procrastinators, so that's where you see the pickup. Men also tend to be less price-conscious, so they'll just go out and buy and not worry about getting a good deal.''

So for the next week, retailers can expect to see a lot of frantic gents opening their wallets to get those presents in the bag and off their minds.

``On the last day, it'll be men who are desperate to buy,'' said Shana Yao, marketing director for Sherman Oaks Fashion Square. ``Women actually like to shop, but men put it off until the last minute.''