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The Buzz around Flip Flop Shops®
Local retailers hoping to have jolly holiday
Santa arrives early to try to jump-start business
by Ryn Gargulinski
Tucson Citizen - 11.17.2007
Santa Claus came to town this week, arriving at both Tucson
Mall and Park Place with the hope of drawing kids, and presumably
their shopping parents, to their stores.
Retailers nationwide have jump-started the season early
this year out of fear that rising gas prices, depreciating
home values and other economic woes will cut shoppers' spending
later.
In Tucson, however, many shoppers interviewed this week
said their holiday gift buying, which can top $3,000, would
continue to fill Santa's fat sack.
But not yet.
"I'm waiting for Black Friday," said South Side shopper
Mike Muise, 32, who has yet to begin his holiday gift buying.
He was referring to the day after Thanksgiving, which has
long been noted for dramatic sales.
His $500 gift budget goes mainly for toys for his four nephews,
ages 5 to 16.
The kids' father, Bruce Fernandez, 34, who was with Muise
at a South Side supermarket Thursday, had about half his
shopping done, which he said will easily total $4,000 and
consists of more stuff for his kids.
Despite troubling economic trends this year, both men said
their holiday gift budgets will be bigger this year than
last year.
"Bigger boys, bigger toys," Fernandez said.
"Remote control cars, electronics, video games," he recited.
Neither was inclined to get a move on holiday gift buying
just because a man in a red suit was already sitting at
the malls.
"It makes me kind of sick," Fernandez said of Santa's early
arrival. "It kind of puts a black eye on the whole situation."
The commercialism also disgusted another South Side shopper,
Vincent Monares, 24.
"They need to stop the marketing of Christmas," he said.
Monares also waits for Black Friday sales to spend his gift
budget cash, which has gone up in the past few years and
now tops $500.
"I can afford more," he said of his increasing spending.
Monares and girlfriend Michelle Ramirez, 22, do all their
holiday shopping at Target.
"Whatever's on the list," Ramirez said of what they buy.
Target Corp. had a 4.1 percent increase in same-store sales
in October while most other retailers' sales contributed
to the slowest October pace since 1995, according to the
International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS tally.
Wal-Mart reported only a 0.4 percent gain for October, lower
than its projected 1.1 percent.
Some retailers reported sales declines, including Nordstrom,
with a 2.4 percent drop; Macy's, a 1.5 percent decline;
JCPenney, a 1.8 percent drop; and Gap Inc., an 8 percent
decline.
With Dec. 25 about five weeks away, the retail industry
is struggling with consumers' eroding confidence and a weakening
sales trend amid mounting problems in the economy.
But several local Tucson retailers had a more positive position
to report.
"October was better than last year," said shop owner Tana
Kelch, "but it didn't feel like it. We must be getting better
at what we do."
Kelch is going on her fifth year with Bohemia, 299 S. Park
Ave., a shop that specializes in locally created arts and
crafts.
Santa is not sitting in the back of the shop, but Kelch
was working on a display of angels and rustic crosses.
"We don't offer sales like the big-box stores, but our stuff
is way better,'' she said. "It's all unique."
Kelch did note the real action has yet to begin, with a
large part of Bohemia's clientele - snowbirds and tourists
- barely arriving.
Flip Flop Shops Inc. in Park Place also had an increase
in October sales and expects to double its holiday sales
over last year, said manager Daniel Danielsen.
He said flip flops, always a hot commodity in Tucson, sell
well during the holidays, as well as during the store's
"second Christmas," from April through June.
Danielsen was glad to have Santa at the mall starting this
week because it gives parents more time to take their kids.
Also, the "Santastic" display is a few yards from his shop.
"I get a lot of the business from people trying to see Santa,"
he said.
Santa's presence doesn't affect Danielsen's personal holiday
shopping, which the father of five finishes months before
Christmas, usually by February. "I'm very anal when it comes
to a lot of stuff."
Rita Ranch resident Erin Moreno, 31, said she was surprised
Santa arrived before Thanksgiving, but it had no bearing
on her holiday shopping habits.
She was shopping with her mom, Char Yenny, 54, on the East
Side on Thursday, but not for holiday gifts.
The bulk of her $500 holiday gift budget, which increases
every year, is spent on toys or gift cards, since many family
members live out of town.
Online is the only way Shannon Klump, 36, shops. The Willcox
resident was in Tucson on Thursday for a few necessities,
but she saves on gas by holiday shopping with a mouse.
"On some sites you have no tax or shipping," she said.
Klump's increasing gift budget, which stays below $1,000,
has already been spent. She's been done with her holiday
shopping since mid-October.
"Santa, I'm way ahead of you" is the only message she had
for the man in red.
East Side resident Carmen Felix, 50, also does a lot of
online shopping for its convenience.
Her $600 holiday gift budget also grows along with her four
kids, ages 16 through 26. She has yet to finish her shopping.
She likes Santa in the malls before Thanksgiving.
"I think it's kind of nice," Felix said. "Just bring on
the cheer a little earlier and get on with the celebration."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Santa coming before Thanksgiving may have started within
the last half decade, but his arrival in stores dates back
some 150 years.
Thousands of kids flocked to a Philadelphia shop that featured
a life-size Santa Claus model in 1841, according to The
History Channel Web site.
Other stores slowly caught on, offering "peeks" at a real
live Santa, not unlike peeks at freaks in Coney Island.
The Salvation Army got bit by the Santa bug in the early
1890s, The History Channel said, when the charity organization
needed to raise funds for its free Christmas meals for the
needy.
Thus it dressed up unemployed men in Santa suits and sent
them off into New York streets to solicit donations.
This evolved into the widespread Salvation Army Santas one
sees ringing bells on many city sidewalks.
Holiday shopping ads came even earlier, The History Channel
said.
Stores started them in 1820, with special holiday newspaper
sections emerging by 1840.
Salvation Army gave a boost to Mr. Claus.
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