Retailers showing mixed results for new school year.

Dave Hollander is breathing a little bit easier now that the back-to-school shopping crunch is coming to a close.

The president of Torrance-based surfwear retailer Becker Surf & Sport spent the past few weeks in his warehouse helping his staff price clothes. He even brought along his daughter and her cousin to help.

In one four-day period, he said he sold about 11,000 items at his two Los Angeles County stores.

"It put a tremendous amount of strain on our warehousing system," Hollander said. "'I'm down here at 4 a.m. filling vans for the next day. You have to restock in the morning."

Hollander is betting on a solid back-to-school season, though he said so far. "we're actually down a little bit" from last year. which was "the doggone top."

The back-to-school shopping season, which generally runs from late July to mid-September, has been a mixed bag for retailers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. have warned that same-store sales would be lower than expected in August as gas prices and an uncertain economy combined to slow traffic.

Another possible reason: There hasn't been one dominant must-have item driving sales.

"There's an awful lot of sameness within various concepts," said Tony Cherbak, an analyst in the consumer products group of Deloitte & Touche LLC's Costa Mesa office. "I don't think it's going to be a blockbuster back-to-school season."

What's been hot this summer?

"Seems like denim is still key," said Dave Rosenberger, Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.'s vice president of sales, winter sports and boys. "In T-shirts and tops, lots of styles have art-influenced embellishments as part of badging and as details. We're still seeing an influence of military silhouettes and colors, including camouflage."

Hollander said he studies back-to-school store reports to spot future trends.

"It's as authentic and core of a read that you can get," he said, since kids usually are buying for themselves.

The same goes for Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. "Our back-to-school business is historically an extremely strong and accurate predictor of holiday (sales)," said Ron Ehler, vice president of information systems. "It helps us finalize our buying plans."

The teen clothes retailer opened its distribution center an extra day each week during the back-to-school period to "handle all the orders," Ehler said.

He said that back-to-school shopping, both online and in PacSun stores, accounts for about 20 percent of annual sales of $1 billion. The company tries to entice shoppers with promotions, such as free shipping for online orders of more than $75 and a contest, where kids can win a $1,000 PacSun.com shopping spree.