Shoppers find malls less crowded than expected

By Kyle B. Hansen

Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009 | 8:31 p.m.

Las Vegas Valley malls were filled with people looking for after-Christmas deals on Saturday, but some shoppers found the stores weren’t as crowded as they expected.

“I really expected a lot of people to be out here, but it wasn’t as bad as the day after Thanksgiving,” said Cindy Almeida as she returned to her car outside of Town Square.

Almeida and two of her children were at the outdoor mall to participate in two after-Christmas traditions — using gift cards and returning presents.

The mall was busy, just not packed. And even though traffic was backing up on the Beltway, the parking lot was not full.

“Even though there’s a lot of cars, there weren’t that many people in the stores,” Almeida said.

Retail analysts said they expected soft sales this Christmas, the result of high unemployment and cautious consumer spending.

“Consumers have less money in aggregate than they did a year ago, and they are cautious with their spending,” said Brian Gordon, a principal with research firm Applied Analysis. “We are dealing with a difficult environment with housing prices remaining low to the peak and fewer people are employed than a year ago. The overall outlook remains challenging.”

America’s Research Group projected November and December sales nationwide could fall 1.2 percent, while the National Retail Federation predicted a 1 percent holiday drop.

Tara Henriksen drove to Town Square from the northwest valley.

“We liked the outdoor mall and hoped it would be less crowded than Fashion Show or the Boulevard,” she said.

Henriksen grew up in Las Vegas but moved to Chicago two years ago, so the upper-40 degree weather was a good excuse to get outside.

“It’s beautiful here compared to 9 degrees there,” she said.

But the mall didn’t offer as many deals as she expected.

“We had gift cards to use and thought there would be good deals, but there wasn’t much,” she said. “There’s a few good deals, but a lot of stuff has been picked over and the stores haven’t done a good job of restocking after the Christmas rush.”

Some of the shoppers at the Galleria at Sunset mall in Henderson found the same thing.

“I came to see if I could find some better sales, but there are none. It’s kind of disappointing,” said Michelle Pineda. “I found better deals before Christmas.”

Her friend Amanda Savage said she made some purchases, but not many.

“I didn’t see anything that screamed out ‘buy me,’” she said. “You see a lot of people carrying bags but not a boatload of bags.”

Joyce Green of Henderson found what she was looking for — Christmas ornaments, at half price.

But the trick was coming early. By noon, the shelves were starting to look bare, she said.

“You’ve got to get them while they’re there,” she said.