Key Shopping Season Gets Off to Uneven Start : Retail: Interest in electronics, entertainment items helps push mall sales up 5.8% from a year ago. Apparel sales are weak.

Retailers reported mixed results for the opening of the holiday shopping season this weekend, with some big department stores experiencing slow sales even as a trade group reported that overall mall sales rose a respectable 5.8%.

Macy’s West, which operates the Bullock’s department store chain, reported flat sales from a year ago, in part because of warm weather that slowed sales of woolens and fleece. Dayton Hudson Corp., parent of Target discount stores and Mervyn’s department stores, described the start of the season as “reasonable.”

Among the large department store chains, Sears, Roebuck & Co. appeared to stand out, with a sales gain of slightly more than 5% over Thanksgiving weekend 1994. The retailer, which sells furniture, tools, appliances and clothing, said it benefited from a consumer preference for one-stop shopping.

The holiday season is critical for retailers, accounting for 25% of sales and 40% of profits. The Thanksgiving weekend is looked to as a gauge for the season, though it has become less important in recent years as consumers have put off their shopping until later in the season.

In general, retailers reported brisk sales of electronics and entertainment items, helping to push shopping center sales up 5.8% from a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade group. Apparel sales were weak.

Retailers said the stores were crowded, though fewer people were carrying shopping bags than retailers would have liked. Many shoppers were drawn by promotions that rewarded them with gifts for showing up early Friday, the start of the shopping weekend.

Dayton Hudson said shoppers turned out in force Friday but that traffic tapered off over the rest of the weekend, when fewer special deals were offered.

“People were out there,” said Michael Steinberg, chairman and chief executive of Macy’s West, who spent much of the weekend surveying the scene. “If we listen to what they say, they are spending less, or being a little more selective, or waiting for markdowns.”

Steinberg was reluctant to predict how the season would unfold, given its disappointing start. “If we have colder weather in the next 10 days, then the situation will right itself,” he said.

Most analysts expect only modest sales gains this year, ranging from 3% to 5%, as holiday shoppers avoid adding to record high debt levels.

In Southern California, where the economy is still climbing out of the recession, analysts are anticipating slimmer sales gains of 2% to 3%. Thanksgiving purchases showed signs of caution: Retailers said hot sellers included books, ornaments and inexpensive gift items. “Customers are looking for practical gifts and little luxuries,” said John Costello, president of Sears. “They are optimistic, but selective.”

The shopping centers trade group reported that sales at book and gift stores such as Pier I Imports, Sunglass Hut International and B. Dalton Co. rose 10.8% from a year ago.

Other retailers doing well, according to the trade group, are music and software stores such as Musicland Stores Corp. and Babbage’s Inc. Sales at those chains rose 9.3% over a year ago, thanks in part to the Beatles’ “Anthology” album and computer software for children.

Sears reported strong sales in electronics, particularly televisions, radios and portable tape players. Costello predicted that Sears would outperform the industry but that it would not match last year’s holiday sales gain of 8%.