SHOPPING POSTPONED BY SOME.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

PALMDALE - As Americans by the millions swarm into stores today, some folks will be sitting it out.

Danise Baker, for example: she plans to skip post-Thanksgiving sales and start Saturday morning hitting the Antelope Valley Mall, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and Home Depot, shopping until 5 or 6 p.m. with a brief lunch break.

``I am a marathon shopper. I make my list for everyone and get it all done over one weekend if I can,'' explained Baker, marketing coordinator for the Lancaster Performing Arts Center. ``Basically I can be cheery with the crowds for that amount of time... I love giving gifts, but I hate fighting the crowds and all that.''

On the day after Thanksgiving, she said, ``It's vicious. People are really rude.''

For Palmdale resident David A. Smith, his shopping is nearly complete for more than 25 relatives and friends. Last year's experience at post-Thanksgiving sales left him sour.

``No parking places at the stores. Aisles crowded with people who pushed and shoved and actually took things out of our shopping cart... It was insane,'' recalled Smith. ``Now we have all the gifts wrapped and ready for shipping before Thanksgiving has even rolled around. We can actually enjoy the holidays and not even think about going near a crowded store.''

But lots of peoples will be in the stores: an expected 50,000 at the Antelope Valley Mall alone.

``We've had a good year. I just think they're (the stores) doing some really good offers right now and now's the time to take advantage of them,'' said Diana Reeves, marketing manager for the Antelope Valley Mall.

A lot of the local buying enthusiasm may be due to a buoyant housing market which enables people to refinance their homes, she said.

``We're kind of attributing that to the fact that people have a lot more discretionary income than they did last year,'' she said.

Big holiday sellers are expected to include toys like My Little Pony, Hokey Pokey Elmo, Mighty Beanz, Care Bears and G.I. Joe 40th anniversary action figures, shopping center association officials say.

For grown ups, top sellers are expected to include home furnishings in unusual colors like tabasco, citrus and aqua; clothing in tweed; fur jackets; glitzy strappy evening wear sandals; cell phones with built-in cameras, DVD players and MP3 players.

``We're noticing a lot of kind of '80s items are coming back which is really interesting,'' said Reeves. ``Care Bears have come back. We've also seen Transformers. The big push is in electronics. We're seeing a lot of people go for electronics, home furnishings.''

The mall will have two newly opened clothing stores catering to younger customers: No Fear, which offers skateboarding- and surfing-style clothing and apparel; and Tilly's, which which offers skateboard, motocross, Gen-X, and Gen-Y apparel.

``The kids are just going berserk right now. They can't wait for it to open,'' Reeves said.

The Antelope Valley Mall has been trending higher than the national average for the past four years in sales increases, Reeves said.

The opening of new stores in Amargosa Commons shopping center a quarter-mile down 10th Street West isn't likely to slow that, she said.

``We welcome anything that will strengthen this area and keep the retail corridor,'' said Reeves. ``We would much rather have the stores here locally than have them (shoppers) go outside the valley and possibly shop at a mall outside the valley.''

Peggy Hager, [phone]

peggy.grimm-hager(at)dailynews.com