Holiday shopping: Sweet electronic dreams

Shoppers flock to video gaming systems, iPods and cell phones this season

Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican

11/29/2008 - 11/30/08

'Twas the Saturday after Thanksgiving and all through the mall, dreams of electronics came tiny and tall.

Santa Fe may be known as a city of art and artists, piñon and adobe, but it's the beeping and whirling of gadgets that have many excited this holiday shopping season.

Cell phones, iPods, video games and last year's smash Wii gaming console system top many lists for young and old alike.

"My grandmother plays video games," said Levi Carrillo, 14, while holiday shopping at the Santa Fe Place Mall on Saturday afternoon. "She wants the new Spyro game for Christmas. She plays more than I do."

In the Spyro the Dragon game series, people play as a purple dragon and rescue other dragons from crystal prisons.

Levi and his friend, David Johnson, 17, stopped to gaze longingly at a red Plymouth Roadrunner muscle car being raffled off in the mall's food court.

Getting a present like that, well, that would probably be a bit excessive, Levi admitted. "It'd be nice to find a Plymouth Roadrunner in my stocking, although I'm not sure it would fit," he said.

Realistically, though, with the economic gloom and doom, Levi said he's most hoping to find some video games under the tree. "These days, the only thing you can hope for is video games," Levi said. "Everything's so expensive to do. If you have games, at least you can play with your friends inside."

He paused.

"Unless the power goes out," he added, looking a little scared.

David's dream gift is a PS3 gaming system, but there's pretty much no chance he's getting that, with the economy the way it is, he said.

But really, that's OK, he added.

"I'm not hoping for anything really," David said. "Spending time with my family is more important. And that's all I really want."

Besides, he already owns a muscle car, David added proudly.

Juanita Garcia, 16, said among her friends "everybody wants an iPod Nano, touch screen" or a cell phone.

Her pick would be a LG Dare, which is a touch screen cell phone on Verizon.

Some of her friends, though, are a bit more old school, she said. "One of my friends totally wants a Rubik's Cube," Juanita said. "I know it's weird. It's like the '80s have come back again."

Her mom and grandmother, on the other hand, seem to want video games, she said.

"They love games like Jewel Quest, Mahjong, Zuma, things like that," she said.

Juanita's friend, Donne Gonzales, 14, also wants a new cell phone. Both girls love "text, pics and flix" from their high-tech phones, Donne said.

She has something really weird picked out for several of her friends, though, she said. "I'm getting my friends hair dye — lime green and orange," Gonzales said with a shy smile.

"Nice," Juanita said approvingly.

It seems even the elementary school crowd digs cell phones and other gadgets. Antonio Cassidy and Kodi Richards, both 11-year-old sixth graders at Eldorado Community School, said they're both into phones.

"If my parents get me that, it's probably going to be all they get me," Antonio said, resting his arms on top of a stand full of video games outside GameStop. "I want a T-Mobile G1 phone. It's got a touch screen and keyboard."

Kodi said he's hoping for "something new, like iPods and technology stuff or games."

He'll probably make his own presents for his parents, he added.

"My parents don't really ask for much, but they usually like stuff I make for them," he said, adding he'd probably make his mom some jewelry.

Rodney Perea, 35, a seasonal employee at GameStop in the mall, said Wii gaming systems have been going fast at his store. At least this weekend, the store had sold all its new models and was down to hawking used ones, he said.

"That's the hot system right now," Perea said. "Rock Band is probably the hottest game, as well. It lets you pretend to play music. It seems to be good for encouraging people if they eventually want to take up an instrument."

He has a cool big present planned for his family, he added, but he's not telling.

That's part of the reason he took the seasonal job, even though he has a full-time job. He wanted to get some extra money for the holidays without worrying about spending in the scary economy, he said. "This adds to my stocking fund," Perea said.

And despite being a gamer himself, Perea said he doesn't really care if anything is under the tree for him this year.

"The well-being of my family is more important than anything else," Perea said. "All this other stuff, it's fun to have, but without your family, it's meaningless. That's what's important this time of year."

Contact Sue Vorenberg at svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.

TOP 10 WISH LIST

Consumers are expected to spend, on average, $1,437 this holiday season, down $200 from last year, according to marketing surveys. Here's the Top 10 electronics wish list for adults, according to the Consumer Electronics Association:

1. Notebook or laptop computer

2. Flat-panel television

3. Cell phone

4. Portable MP3/digital media player

5. Video game console

6. DVD player

7. Digital camera

8. Global Position System

9. Camcorder

10. DVR