Shoppers Flood Stores but Not All Are Sold Yet : Retail: In O.C. and nationwide, optimism on economy brings brisk business despite bargain-insistent holdouts.

While much of the nation shivered in cold, snowy weather Friday, Orange County residents took advantage of balmy weather to hit the malls in search of holiday bargains.

Brisk afternoon business at local shopping centers prompted recession-weary retailers to declare an end to the economic slump that has held down sales during holiday seasons recently past.

“There’s a line 10 people deep at the Orange Julius,” said Julie Garvey, manager of Leah’s Fabric Gallery at Mission Viejo Mall. “That’s a good sign. . . . Give them a sugar buzz, and get them into the stores.”

Shoppers from the Southland to the Deep South said Friday that they are more upbeat this year about the economy, confirming recent nationwide polls.

“We’ll probably buy more this year that last, and thank God we can,” said Bill Wilson, an electrician for AT&T; in Atlanta. “My wife and I both have excellent jobs. I’m making more money now than I ever have.”

In Costa Mesa, South Coast Plaza shopper Reuben Aldorando said he will spend as much as he did last year--and maybe a bit more--on gifts for daughters Brittanie and Marissa. But the family will keep its credit cards under lock and key and pay cash for purchases this year, said Aldorando, who was recently forced by the stagnant economy to close his Fountain Valley jewelry store and go back to his previous occupation as a physical therapist.

Orange County shoppers will spend an average of $600 this year on holiday gifts--about what they spent in 1992, said Tony Cherbak, a Costa Mesa-based partner with Deloitte & Touche, an accounting firm that interviewed Orange County shoppers Friday.

Though retail experts think prices will go lower as Christmas draws nearer, many Orange County shoppers told Deloitte & Touche that they hope to wrap up their holiday shopping before Dec. 10. “The number of last-minute shoppers, which is anything past Dec. 20, and those that will complete it before Dec. 1 pretty much balanced out,” Cherbak said.

The average price of gifts purchased Friday was $35 to $40, Cherbak said.

Anxious merchants use a variety of measurements to try to gauge consumer confidence during the all-important holiday season. Retailers drew confidence from an early-morning report from Denver-based Telechek Services Inc., which processes consumers’ checks for retailers.

“Between 10:30 and 11 a.m. (Mountain Time) we handled 1,100 calls in our Denver office, and the norm is 300,” Telechek spokeswoman Laura Hughes said. “It’s been the same in our Houston facility.”

Friday’s big turnout indicated that sales totals would at least match those for the day after Thanksgiving last year. Shoppers were seeking out bargains, and retailers responded. Target and Montgomery Ward department stores served up two-day sales in Southern California, while Robinsons-May, the Broadway and Ross Dress for Less promoted three-day events that extend through Sunday.

Specialty retailers such as Toys R Us and Oshman’s sporting goods were also among those offering discount coupons valid this weekend. And many stores tried to draw consumers with “early bird” specials for those willing to make the rounds as early as 8 a.m.

“We try to buy everything on sale,” said Donna Nomann, a kindergarten teacher who spent Friday morning at Westminster Mall.

Blake and Patricia Fienchamp of Huntington Beach were at the same shopping center in search of gifts for 12 grandchildren.

“We’re feeling a little bit more comfortable about the future,” Blake Fienchamp said. “We’ll spend top dollar for the right thing, but if there’s a sale, we’ll take it.”

Shoppers were divided over whether stores will offer better deals as the shopping season progresses.

Dana Point residents Nicholas and Kimberly Olevsky were cruising South Coast Plaza for gift ideas when they spotted Game Boy video games selling for $49, down from $79 last year. “We don’t know if that’s because they’re being more competitive or because of (new) technology,” Nicholas Olevsky said.

Kurt Barnard, a New York-based economist and publisher of the Retail Marketing Report newsletter, said: “We’re seeing a tremendously cautious and savvy consumer who is not ready to spend a lot right now. . . . Consumers are comparing stores and comparing products. The key words are value and bargains. “

At MainPlace/Santa Ana, Garden Grove resident Julie Engle said she’ll wait until December to buy videotapes and tools. Her experience, she said, has been that “they come down (in price) before Christmas.”

In contrast, MainPlace shoppers Hung Doan and his wife, Mai Doan, said they finished their shopping Friday because “prices will be going up, not down.”

The word sale is not in the staff’s vocabulary at Tourneau, a South Coast Plaza shop that sells pricey watches. Still, the store was crowded on Friday.

“On a good Saturday or Sunday we’ll get 300 people in the shop,” Assistant Manager Bill Kasler said. “Today, we’re expecting about 500 people.”

Elsewhere, however, there were plenty of bargains for early risers.

Rhona Juengst of Aliso Viejo was second in a line of more than 100 shoppers gathered for the annual “Big Sale” at L.A. Eyeworks’ South Coast Plaza store. Juengst said prices won’t get any better at L.A. Eyeworks as the holiday shopping season progresses.

Juengst bought two pairs of finely crafted tortoise-shell frames. One was marked down to $90 from $180, the other reduced from $165 to $35. “That’s it,” Juengst said. “I’m going home.”

Some consumers have learned that one-day sales often grow into three-day or weeklong events, and those shoppers will wait for the best buys, said Theodore Grossman, a marketing professor at Babson College in Massachusetts.

“Consumers are going to play chicken with retailers,” Grossman said. “And we’ll see who blinks first.”

South Coast Plaza merchants were expecting to play host to about 100,000 shoppers before the doors closed at 10 p.m. Friday. Professional Parking Services Inc. assembled an army of 90 valets to park cars for shoppers.

“On a good weekend day we’d usually have about 15 valets working,” said Stephen Paliska, who oversees the mall’s valet service. “So this is a big, big day. . . . For many people it’s an event.”

Parking spots were a scarce commodity countywide. Two cars followed in Teresa Whalen’s wake as she walked to her vehicle at Laguna Hills Mall.

“I’m glad I came early,” Whalen said. “I got someplace to park, and I found some real nice shirts on sale. I’m happy, but I’ve got a lot of shopping left before Christmas.”

Coco Westman, 65, of El Paso, spent 45 minutes searching for parking at South Coast Plaza. “To go to the restroom is another 20 minutes, and to eat something--who knows?” Westman said. “The lines are worse than Disneyland.”

Less than two hours after the shopping center opened its doors Friday, center spokeswoman Jan Roberts told two television crews that “everyone’s in a great mood. . . . It’s hard to believe this is Southern California.”

Across town at Triangle Square in Costa Mesa, Friday was also the grand opening of the nation’s second Virgin Megastore, which offers more than 150,000 music and video titles--including Phil Spector’s vaunted Christmas album and two compact discs filled with versions of the rock standard “Louie, Louie.”

Shoppers who jammed Virgin’s two-story store were greeted by a Santa Claus in a Hawaiian shirt. In the food court upstairs, shoppers jumped at the opportunity to be contestants on a new MTV game show to be filmed in Los Angeles. (Some shoppers grumbled that the contest’s age limit--rockers over 26 were prohibited--amounted to “age discrimination.”)

Predictably, shopping centers also served as gathering spots.

“We’re here for girls,” said Ray Coleman, 14, as he cruised Buena Park Mall. Quipped his friend Gilbert Valdez, also 14: “I don’t come here to shop.”

Rudolph Ballesteros, who with wife Eleanor was enjoying a piece of pie at the Buena Park food court, said, “We’re just getting out of the house.”

Eleanor Ballesteros added, “You hear people talking, and it’s lively. You feel like you’re out in the world.”

Not all mall visitors were so mellow.

“Fifty percent are grouchy and mean, and 50% are friendly,” said sales associate Kendra Jones at Gap Shoes in South Coast Plaza.

About 50 demonstrators gathered at South Coast Plaza, holding placards and banners denouncing the sale of fur coats at Bullock’s Department Store and high-end designer Fendi.

The noontime “Fur Free Friday” protest, one of several held across the nation, was sponsored by Orange County People for Animals, which has about 2,000 members.

“Fur is dead,” said Ava Park, 38, the group’s founder, noting that animal rights activists have forced the closure of fur salons in Robinson’s, Nordstrom and Sears over the past three years. “Eventually Bullock’s will have to close it, too. There is no way around it. There is no excuse.”

In the past, demonstrators presented a dead fox to a department store manager and at another store played an audiotape of a caged animal. But South Coast Plaza managers last week agreed to let OCPA staff set up an information table inside the mall in exchange for not “crashing their floor,” Park said.

Outside Southern California, weather and local economies dampened shoppers’ spirits.

At the Alderwood Mall near Seattle, the mood was mixed because many of the area’s residents are employed by Boeing Co., which laid off more than 9,000 workers and, for the first time in a decade, canceled its annual year-end employee bonuses. Last year, those payments pumped $300 million into the local economy.

Similarly, a weak New England economy held down sales in the Boston area. There were relatively few shoppers at the vast South Shore Plaza in Braintree. In the shoe department at the mall’s Lord & Taylor, shopper Susan Fuller eyed a bargain rack and noted that the absence of crowds “makes it easier for us.”

In contrast, Atlanta’s economy is booming, and consumer confidence there is further buoyed by the upcoming 1994 Summer Olympics. Rain and chilly temperatures didn’t keep hardy shoppers away.

Across the nation, practical gifts were in vogue. Connie Blair, 42, a personnel manager for U.S. West in Denver, noted that “there’s just no job security, and the price of homes keeps going up, and you’re supposed to job hop.”

A winter snowstorm in Minnesota on Thursday afternoon slowed traffic Friday morning, but consumers still flocked to the indoor Mall of America. “Business is brisk today,” mall spokeswoman Susan Austin said. “Overall, we expect a 3% to 5% increase in holiday season sales by Christmas.”

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers and correspondents Jennifer Brundin, Willson Cummer, Bert Eljera and Frank Messina in Orange County; Jesus Sanchez and Scott Sandell in Los Angeles; Jill Bettner in the San Fernando Valley; Constance Sommer and Matthew Mosk in Ventura; Doug Conner in Seattle; Lianne Hart in Houston; Elizabeth Mehren in Boston, Ann Rovin in Denver and Edith Stanley in Atlanta.