Heavy Rains Boost, Break Business

Record-breaking rains pelted Southern California the week before Christmas, and the result was heavier-than-usual retail traffic at enclosed malls.

The Glendale Galleria retail center in Glendale, Calif., estimated more than 300,000 people sought refuge from the heavy rains in its enclosed mall during the weekend of Dec. 17 through 19.

Los Angeles’ Beverly Center reported year-over-year, double-digit increases for traffic in its five-level parking structure. “We filled the lot several times over,” said Susan Vance, Beverly Center’s marketing director. “The weekend was especially strong due to the rains.”

Rains kept consumers away from stand-alone stores on typically thriving retail streets. The week before Christmas, the Diane Merrick boutique in Los Angeles is typically packed with people. During the rain-soaked weekend before Christmas, boutique owner Diane Merrick said, her store was only moderately busy. “[The rains] could have come in October or November,” Merrick said. “They did not have to come the week before Christmas to destroy business.”

Merrick said she hopes to recoup business lost during the wet weekend with an e-mail blast with news of items on sale at her store.

Retail traffic also suffered on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, one of Los Angeles’ high-profile, open-air shopping districts. Ash Heier is a co-owner of Gossamer, a women’s boutique on Abbot Kinney. She claimed sales on the rainy weekend before Christmas were better than business on a typical weekday. “But it was only half of what we do on a weekend day,” Heier said.

She also said she hopes to make up for poor sales by advertising discounts at Gossamer. “We’re promoting denim and shoes at 25 percent off to get money flowing,” she said.

If weather was unseasonably wet, retail analyst Liz Pierce said nothing could break the shopping spirit of the season. It’s what people do before Christmas. “Eventually, they have got to go shop,” explained Pierce, who works for Roth Capital in Newport Beach, Calif.—Andrew Asch