Becky Lee and husband Alex Lee were driving from their Modesto home to Chico for the Thanksgiving holiday – but made a mid-trip stop at the Folsom Premium Outlets.

They mostly shop online, but dress shirts and other items from Brooks Brothers – gifts for Becky's parents – were on the shopping list Tuesday.

"We stopped specifically for Christmas shopping," she said. "You can always find them cheaper here."

True to this holiday season, "we're cutting down on gifts," she said. "We're keeping it cleaner and simpler this year."

With flagging consumer confidence and dismal retail sales numbers nationally, officials for the sprawling, 80-store hilltop mall above Folsom Boulevard are marketing the outlets as a shopping attraction suited to budget-conscious times.

Names like Brooks Brothers and Saks Fifth Avenue share space with designer shingles Calvin Klein and Kenneth Cole but sell their wares at discounted factory store prices.

A Black Friday sale that kicks off at midnight Thursday at most of the outlet center's stores promises even deeper discounts.

Michele Rothstein, spokeswoman for the Chelsea Property Group, said the outlets' appeal is based on "the reliability of the value, but it's also the depth of selection."

The nation's largest outlet center developer, Chelsea owns Folsom Premium Outlets and its 120-store sister property, Vacaville Premium Outlets. "If you love one of our brands, you'll find it," Rothstein said.

At more than $17 billion in sales, outlet centers represent about 2 percent of retail sales, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Folsom Premium Outlets is hoping to capture shoppers' dollars in a hyper-competitive and turbulent marketplace.

This week, shoppers like Denise Seymour of Citrus Heights scoured the racks at Factory Brand Shoes, her mother and two young sons by her side. But the outlet mall would be just one stop for this bargain hunter.

By Black Friday night, she hopes to have hit more than 10 stores, including Target and Joann Fabrics.

"I'm all over the place because gas is so much cheaper," Seymour said. "When gas was more expensive, it was one-stop shopping."

Traditional shopping malls have taken a beating in recent months, with traffic down as much as 18 percent from last year, said retail analyst C. Britt Beemer, whose Charleston, S.C.-based America's Research Group released a bleak forecast of holiday spending earlier this month.

Locally, the difficulties have shown up in retail vacancy rates.

The third quarter vacancy rate in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties was 7.4 percent, according to CB Richard Ellis, as national chains and local businesses closed underperforming stores or folded outright. The rate was 7.1 percent in the year-previous third quarter.

"The trend is that vacancy rates will continue to go up. It will get worse before it gets better," said Robert Hicks, a senior vice president at real estate investment firm Marcus & Millichap's Roseville office.

Outlet centers have largely remained immune to the vacancies – the Folsom outlets are at full occupancy, Rothstein said. Vacaville has an occupancy rate "in the high 90s," she said. At Chelsea's 43 Premium Outlets nationwide, occupancy as of third quarter 2008 was 98.8 percent, Rothstein said.

That makes sense, said Scott Crowle, an associate vice president at Marcus & Millichap. As chains peel off stores or move inventory, their product ends up in outlet stores, he said.

The outlets may also attract shoppers who are both label-conscious and budget-savvy, Hicks added.

But in struggling economic times, even that comes with a caveat, said Beemer of America's Research Group.

"Outlet malls do a little bit better because you can get a deal, but the challenge is that our numbers show that in the Christmas season, only 38 percent of shoppers plan to go to malls at all," Beemer said.

Many shoppers will seek one-stop discounters like Wal-Mart and Costco, said Scott Marden, marketing research director at Baltimore-based retail tracker Vertis Communications.

"(Outlets) may not see the traffic they saw in previous years," Marden said. "While shopping can be great fun, shoppers will try to get everything they can at one location."

To counter, Chelsea is looking not only to local customers and regional travelers. It positions its properties as destinations to attract out-of-state and international visitors. Its online location map comes with the headline, "Strategic Planning for Your Next Vacation," and it partners with local hotels and Sacramento's Convention and Visitors Bureau to better attract destination shoppers.

With holiday shoppers in a penny-pinching mood, Beemer, quoting a consumer he surveyed, wondered if that would be enough.

"She said, 'I go to Wal-Mart to save money. I go to malls to spend money. That's why I don't go to malls much.' "

Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.