RETAILERS PLEASED BY WEEKEND SALES; AREA MALLS REPORT INCREASES.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

The stampede of holiday shoppers that started at the crack of dawn Friday continued unabated through the weekend at area malls and stores, giving retailers additional hope for a happy holiday season.

Some shopping centers reported one-day gains during the weekend as high as 23.8 percent above the same day last year, and representatives from the half-dozen centers contacted Monday said their aisles remained crowded and their parking lots packed through the entire weekend.

``It was a very busy weekend,'' said Richard Giss, a partner with the trade retail services group at the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP in Los Angeles.

``It doesn't put the season in the bag by any means, but . . . so far it looks to be a very, very good Christmas season,'' he said, pointing out that last year started out strong, too, before decreasing in the first weeks of December.

``There are a lot of shopping days between now and Christmas.''

Still, retailers had to be cheered by the weekend's results. This has been a difficult decade for the nation's retailers, with only modest gains in sales year-to-year.

This winter's outlook was cloudy: On the one hand, Wall Street's impressive climb this fall boosted consumer confidence; on the other, the stock market's fluctuations were scaring retailers and buyers alike, and most surveys concluded that shoppers were only increasing their holiday budget by 4 percent to 6 percent.

That's why this weekend's results were so impressive, with every major shopping center reporting stronger-than-expected sales.

Of the shopping centers across the region surveyed by the Daily News, the one with the biggest gains was The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks.

According to mall management, sales in terms of dollars per square foot jumped 18.2 percent the day after Thanksgiving, the so-called Black Friday that typically kicks off the holiday season.

Saturday saw a whopping 23.8 percent jump, but sales Sunday were flat compared to the same day last year, according to mall statistics.

Other centers had similar stories.

The Glendale Galleria's J.C. Penney saw a 29 percent sales increase over the weekend compared with last year - the best Thanksgiving weekend in the store's history, said mall spokeswoman Annette Bethers.

``All of our majors are saying that they had healthy increases and that this was the best day-after-Thanksgiving weekend they have had in a number of years,'' she said.

Sales at other centers, while not as spectacular, also showed some healthy spikes.

Business at the 150-store Northridge Fashion Center was ``very good, very strong'' and the four anchor department stores - J.C. Penney, Sears, Robinsons-May and Macy's - did especially well this weekend, said mall general manager Carol Jacobs.

``Our department stores did outstanding (business) over the weekend,'' Jacobs said. ``Sears and Penney had huge after-Thanksgiving day sales. It was the highest they had in the last several years.''

The weekend's sales at the Northridge J.C. Penney were up 10 percent vs. 1997, and Sears also experienced a double-digit increase compared to the same weekend last year, she said.

On any given day of the weekend, Macy's sales hovered between 5 percent and 7 percent above the comparable period last year, and the mall's Robinsons-May beat last year's sales by 30 percent - though Jacobs pointed out that the store's home division was closed last year.

``The outlook is definitely very optimistic,'' Jacobs said. ``Sales year-to-date are ahead of 1997 for the whole center. We expect the holiday season to be extremely strong.''

Westfield America Inc., which owns The Promenade in Woodland Hills and the nearby Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park, saw 2 percent to 7 percent traffic increases at its eight Los Angeles County centers, said Randall Smith, executive vice president of marketing for the Los Angeles-based company.

Traffic at The Promenade alone jumped 6 percent to 7 percent, helped by the presence of the 14-screen AMC movie theater and the weekend's rainy weather, he said.

``Overall, the weekend was good,'' Smith said. ``We would say we were hoping that sales will (increase) between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent.''

At the Valencia Town Center in Santa Clarita, there were ``some indications'' of a 4 percent to 6 percent increase over last year, said Kathleen Gill, senior marketing manager for the center.