FULLERTON : Gorilla to Stay as City Lifts Display Ban

The fake gorilla in a yellow dress outside Chuck Van’s costume store can stay. And since the City Council recently lifted an outdoor display ban, other businesses have been able to put antiques, clothing and other items outside their stores.

Earlier this month, the council decided to let stores in the nine-block downtown business district set up 10-square-foot displays to draw attention.

“You don’t notice things really, driving down Harbor Boulevard at 40 m.p.h.,” said Michael Ritto, president of the 60-member Downtown Fullerton Merchants Assn.

“It gets to be ridiculous to hear the number of people who say “Wow, I drove by 100 times and I never knew this was here,” Ritto said.

Van said his gorilla, which is dressed as a maid and carries a broom, clearly shows passersby that he sells costumes. “Everybody knows my store from the gorilla, but half of them don’t know the name,” Van said. His store, on Harbor Boulevard, is called Unique Costumes.

Ritto said the display space is only 10 square feet so that merchants may display enough to draw customers, but not turn the sidewalk into a “flea market.”

But Van said he’d rather have bustling sidewalk business than the many boarded-up storefronts and closed businesses on Harbor Boulevard that he called a “ghost town.”

Merchant Michelle Sauer agreed. She runs Ragztop, a vintage clothing store on Commonwealth Avenue. Sauer said business at the 5-year-old store increased 50% when she put a rack of clothes and other vintage items on the sidewalk.

“Your best advertising is what you put out there,” Sauer said.

“That’s how we saw” the store, said Jamie Hardesty, who came to Ragztop on Friday with her mother.

Gary Chalupsky, the city’s redevelopment director, said the outdoor display code will be reviewed in a year and larger displays could be allowed.

Some downtown merchants opposed the displays, Chalupsky said. “We had one that said she moved here from Orange because she said it was really junky there,” Chalupsky said. “She said she was unhappy to see Fullerton moving in the same way.”

Ritto agreed that there was some controversy among downtown merchants about the displays. “There have been in the past people that went overboard,” he said. “There are some people that might want to have more than 10 square feet.”

But most are pleased with the new rule, Ritto said.