Retailers are hoping pizazz is a big draw

NEW YORK — The nation's retailers are hoping furry ponchos, fur-lined flip-flops, and sweater sets adorned with multiple brooches will excite shoppers this holiday season and lure them into stores and malls earlier than in previous years.

Some of the merchandise is downright silly, but store owners hope all the frivolity will help them improve on last year's 4 percent increase in sales at stores opened at least a year, which was the biggest gain since 1999 when retailers posted a 5.4 percent increase.

"Many of these trends are not new but will be hotter because they have a lot more pizazz," said David Wolfe, creative director for the Doneger Group, a New York-based merchandise buying office. "I don't think this is going be the most tasteful Christmas, but it could be the most fun. And it's selling."

At J.C. Penney Co. Inc., hot holiday items include lab-made pink sapphire rings, rabbit fur ponchos and hot pink leather gloves. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is doing well with hot pink puffy suede boots and sweaters with faux fur trims. And after having success with brooches this past fall, Sears, Roebuck and Co. is hoping it will sell even more — it's featuring two or three of these ornate pins on sweaters and capes.

Sears also is doing well with striped ponchos in bright colors, and teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is counting on fur-lined flip-flops to give it a sales boost.

At luxury store Bergdorf Goodman, owned by the Neiman-Marcus Group Inc., $1,480 mink handbags with dragon embellishments have been big hits with shoppers, as have

$2,200 body-hugging wraps — or what the fashion industry calls shrugs — in faux leopard print, according to Robert Burke, vice president of fashion.

Shares of retailers have outperformed the overall market this year. The UBS discount store index, which includes retailers like Wal-Mart, is up 8 percent, and its department store index jumped 19 percent. Both top the Standard & Poor's 500's 6 percent gain.

As the holiday 2004 shopping season kicks into gear Friday amid an improving but still challenging economy, many merchants are trying to be more creative to get consumers to buy in yet another season that hasn't yielded any particular must-haves besides miniature iPods from Apple Computer Inc. and flat-screen television sets.

They're also trying to change consumers' habits about when to start shopping. Sears' pre-Thanksgiving sale, held this past Saturday, offered about three times as many early bird specials as a year ago, according to Bill Masterson, a company spokesman.