Stores across United States of America were gearing up for the official start of the holiday shopping season Friday with midnight openings doling out special offers on shoppers who have been reluctant to open their purse strings due to a none too happy an economy.
“Retailers are worried because they are not sure what is going to grab the customers’ attention,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Retail Group. “Everybody believes that early specials are the most successful retail events of the year.”
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is throwing open its doors at 5 a.m., offering such specials as a Polaroid 42-inch LCD HDTV for $798 and a $79.87 Sony digital camera. From 5 a.m. to 12 noon, Toys “R” Us Inc. is offering 101 door busters on such toys as Mattel Inc.’s Barbie styling set and Hasbro Inc.’s FurReal interactive jungle cat toy. That’s four times the number it offered last year.
J.C. Penney Co., which is opening at 4 a.m., an hour earlier than last year, will be serving up such deals as a leather massage recliner for $298.88, after a $50 mail in rebate. The original price was $799. Other deals include 50 percent off toys and board games.
Realizing that the holiday shopping season would be challenging, stores started discounting weeks ago, with such gimmicks as door busters and expanded hours.
While top luxury stores like Saks Fifth Avenue continue to do well, merchants that cater to middle and lower income shoppers have been suffering as consumers struggle with higher gas and food prices as well as a slumping housing market.
Analysts don’t believe early discounting in October will take away the momentum of the Thanksgiving weekend. While Black Friday is expected by some analysts to be the busiest day of the season, it’s not a predictor of how retailers will fare in the season overall. It does set the tone, though, since what consumers see that day influences where they will shop for the rest of the year.
Last year, retailers had a good start during the Thanksgiving weekend, but many stores struggled in December and a shopping surge just before and after Christmas wasn’t enough to make up for lost sales.
This year, analysts expect sales gains to be the weakest in five years. Washington-based National Retail Federation predicted that total holiday sales will be up 4 percent for the combined November and December period, the slowest growth since a 1.3 percent rise in 2002.
Holiday sales rose 4.6 percent in 2006 and growth has averaged 4.8 percent over the last decade.
