Retailers

Coming during the heart of the post-Christmas shopping doldrums, Valentine’s Day is an event retailers have grown to love. Jewelers, florists and purveyors of sweets ramp up for Feb. 14. The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend $15.7 billion on Valentine’s-related purchases this year, with the average person shelling out $116 for cards, jewelry and delicacies. And local vendors who have survived the Great Recession are angling for a piece of the action.

Opponents of a planned Walmart in Burbank may get some political ammunition if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill that would require mega-retailers to submit studies gauging the impact of their stores on everything from traffic to local commerce. The controversial bill on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk, SB 469, would require any store larger than 90,000 square feet that sells consumer goods and devotes more than 10% of its floor area to food and prescription drugs sales to pay for an economic impact report.

Foot traffic at local malls and business districts is brisk as after-Christmas sales begin.GLENDALE -- With Christmas over and the post-holiday shopping rush in full swing, retailers throughout the city are expressing confidence that this season will prove to be more boom than bust. At the city's largest collection of retail outlets, the Glendale Galleria, the day after Christmas featured large crowds and heavy sales, Galleria Senior Marketing Manager Janet LaFevre said. "We had a phenomenal day yesterday in terms of traffic and sales, according to our retailers," LaFevre said Tuesday.

Developers planning a large, furniture-focused shopping center announced Wednesday a list of retailers that are expected to fill more than half of the center's available retail space. Birtcher Development and Investments, based in Irvine, released the list of tenants at a breakfast event held Tuesday at the site of the planned shopping center. The company is planning to build the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre on the land currently occupied by the former regional headquarters of State Farm Insurance near Sunflower and Hyland avenues.

DOWNTOWN — Los Angeles economy expert Jack Kyser doesn’t need to read market reports, analyze consumer studies or mull over the ongoing writers’ strike to know that area retailers are bracing for a slow holiday shopping season this year. He just peers out his car window when he’s driving home from work. On his way to his Downey home from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., where he serves as chief economist, Kyser passes train yards where shipping containers stocked with consumer goods from overseas are unloaded or stored.

Glendale could soon followin the footsteps of Los Angeles County and several cities throughout the state that have banned plastic bags at major retail stores. The City Council on Tuesday will determine whether to pursue a law similar to the one that recently went into effect for unincorporated areas of L.A. County. That law, which will affect more than 2,000 stores by January 2012, bans plastic bags and requires retailers to levy a 10-cent surcharge per paper bag. Other cities, such as Pasadena, have already started drafting their own bans to be in lockstep with the county.

Hip youth retailers to open in Burbank EQ3, a gallery offering furniture from retailers like Urban Outfitters, Active, O My Sole and Skyblupink, will open in Downtown Burbank this winter in the space formerly occupied by Book City. The store's motto regards "furniture as fashion" and will feature products for living, dining, sleeping and working. The store is scheduled to open in time for the holiday season. Palliser Furniture, Canada's largest manufacturer of assembled home furniture, began the EQ3 concept in 2001.

As a resident concerned about a potential Walmart in Burbank, I would like to say that everyone wants to pay less for things. Everyone. And as a teacher who can't get more hours, I can especially appreciate that. But if there is one thing that I could try and get across to people, it would be these “low prices” that Walmart advertises aren't as low if you look at the larger picture (“Walmart is far from a cure-all,” Aug. 30). A lot of people who want Walmart think that its coming to town would be good because of the state corporate income taxes they will pay. But what a lot of people don't realize is that Walmart avoids paying millions in dollars in taxes a year because of the way their real estate trust is set up. They put their stores under the ownership of a real estate investment trust.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- Ernesto Martinez has a simple reason for wanting to keep tobacco out of the hands of kids. "I wouldn't want my child to buy tobacco products," he said. The manager of a local gas station, Martinez was among nearly 100 store managers and employees from throughout the area who attended a workshop Tuesday at the Hilton Glendale to learn ways to keep minors from buying everything from cigars to to pipes. The free workshop was put on by the Coalition for Responsible Tobacco Retailing, a group made up by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, including Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The organization sponsors the "We Card" campaign and provides free training sessions and materials to businesses throughout the U.S. "Retailers want to do the right thing," said Read deButts, the coalition's executive director.

Karen S. Kim GLENDALE -- As local merchants await the onset of the busiest shopping season of the year, expectations for the holiday sales receipts are mixed. "I think everyone's hoping for the best," said Lori Flagg, president of the Montrose Shopping Park Assn. "Let's face it, the economy right now is not very good." The sluggish economy can be blamed on two major factors, according to economists. "A high level of unemployment and a low level of consumer confidence in the economy would lead you to believe that holiday sales would probably be flat in comparison with recent years," said Tim Brandt, senior manager in consumer products for Deloitte & Touche, a professional services firm.

Glendale officials contacted Sears Holdings Inc. this week about its store on North Central Avenue after Councilwoman Laura Friedman last week complained that she was “just sick of it.” Pointing out its uninspired, outdated appearance, Friedman said during a City Council meeting that the façade “should be a code enforcement issue.” “It looks closed. It looks dangerous. And I'm just sick of it,” she added. The store was constructed in 1935, according to Sears officials.

Kidney disease is a chronic condition with no cure, but members of the Glendale-based Renal Support Network don't let that get them down as they “bead” together for a new fundraiser that's the brainchild of a local woman who's had four kidney transplants. The organization is giving away beaded bracelets for donations in a jewelry collection called EmbraceHope, said Glendale resident Lori Hartwell, who founded the network in 1993 and organized the fundraiser. Each bracelet is named for and dedicated to one of 12 friends who helped Hartwell during her most recent transplant.

It's a couple of weeks before Christmas so retailers are trying to squeeze some more dollars from consumers while they start preparing for the post-Christmas sales. What a wonderful time of year. It is a good reminder how the retail sector has managed to smother any possible meaning left of Christmas or any other similar holiday celebrated by other cultures and religions. This reality hit me hard on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I had a household item I needed so after work I decided I would make a stop at Walmart.

Long lines that started forming at some of the area's largest retailers overnight Thursday gave way to the more traditional Black Friday crowds in the morning, with shoppers clogging stores in Burbank and Glendale for those early bird deals. In Burbank, police were deployed to Best Buy and Target overnight as the first few hundred customers were given wristbands for midnight access. Hundreds more customers, meanwhile, waited in lines that snaked around buildings and into parking lots.

I remember my first time in one of L.A.'s municipal animal shelters. It was an overcast day and I had arrived on a Saturday morning, the initial visit of many for a story I was working on about the overwhelming tragic number of dogs and cats our city kills each year (euthanization figures hover at around 50,000 for Los Angeles County), mostly due to no other reason than overcrowding and lack of space. “This is the saddest place on earth,” said a man who was busy putting on his jacket and walking out the swinging doors of the shelter as I made my way in. He was right.

Halloween pop-up stores have again bloomed throughout Glendale and Burbank - with customers inspecting Spider-Man costumes nestled between bowls of fake spiders - but there is less horror this year, at least for landlords. As the local real estate market begins to improve, there are simply fewer places for the itinerant businesses to land. Glendale-based Halloween Time used to have stores on Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, at Pacific Avenue and Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale and in the former Mervyn's department store downtown, said Patrick Abed, manager of the store on North Brand Boulevard.

Glendale's ban on the retail sale of cats and dogs is set to become effective in September, but before then, officials plan to do extensive outreach with affected stores, according to a City Hall presentation made Tuesday night. The City Council passed the ban in August, on the heels of other cities such as West Hollywood and Hermosa Beach, to curb the demand for puppy mills in Glendale. Of the 18 pet stores in Glendale, three have a recent history of selling cats and dogs.

Opposition to a planned Walmart in Burbank surged this week as critics demanded the city first address promised traffic improvements before allowing the mega-retailer to move in. Backed by an attorney for the powerful United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 770, opponents packed the Burbank City Council Chambers on Tuesday demanding due consideration be paid to the impact a Walmart would have on an already congested network of roads surrounding...

With just nine days to go until Christmas and shoppers out in force at malls around the country, the nation's largest retail group is raising its sales forecast for the holiday season. The National Retail Federation predicted holiday sales to rise 3.8% to $469.1 billion, up from its earlier estimate of 2.8%. That's far below the 5.2% increase retailers enjoyed last year, but it's a step up from the 10-year average of 2.6%. "After strong sales reports in October and November, along with a successful Black Friday weekend, retailers are cautiously optimistic that this season will turn out better than initially expected," said Matthew Shay, the retail group's president and chief executive.

Shoppers could come down with “frugal fatigue” this holiday season, potentially sparking higher retail sales as consumers rebound from their economic gloom, experts said Tuesday. They were part of a panel at the Glendale Galleria - a regional retail powerhouse - as representatives highlighted the hottest toys and gadgets for the upcoming holiday shopping season. “[Shoppers] may think to themselves, 'I do need to replace some things,'” said Kimberly Ritter-Martinez, associate economist with the Kyser Center for Economic Research and Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.