Some Hawaii retailers getting early start on Black Friday
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Move over turkey. Forget football. Parade schmarade. Black Friday starts tonight.
Retailers are piling on extra trimmings this year to motivate consumers — many of whom have had their pocketbooks whacked and confidence sapped by a faltering economy — to begin holiday gift spending tonight and early tomorrow morning.
The day after Thanksgiving is known in the retail world as Black Friday because it launches the holiday shopping season that can turn stores' ledgers from the red ink of losses into the black ink of profits.
So it's no surprise that stores and malls have started Black Friday earlier and earlier in recent years.
Waikele Premium Outlets has several stores opening tonight at 10 — two hours before the "Midnight Madness" events that had previously been the first openings there for Black Friday. In the past, those midnight events featured special deals from retailers such as KB Toys and The Disney Store, but this year every store at the Waikele outlet mall is opening at 10 or midnight tonight.
Macy's is opening its Hawai'i stores at 5 a.m. tomorrow, an hour earlier than last year.
KB Toys, which closed three of seven Hawai'i stores last December amid financial trouble, is opening its Windward Mall store at midnight tonight and has been giving out coupons with any purchase since Nov. 1 that are good for a 40 percent discount on any toy bought between midnight tonight and 5 a.m. tomorrow.
At Ward Centers, the complex is promoting two dozen merchants offering 20 percent to 50 percent discounts for part or all of Black Friday, and is offering shoppers a $15 gift card redeem- able with tenants if they spend $200 at the center tomorrow.
Ala Moana also has enhanced promotions for its day-after-Thanksgiving event that the state's largest mall has dubbed "Thanks-getting." The shopping center has a "cheat sheet" available online describing specials offered by retailers that include up to 70 percent off merchandise in some stores including Le Grand Marqet, Loco Boutique, Coral Tree and Betsey Johnson, which is also providing customers coffee and doughnuts.
The mall also is offering free valet parking, and is giving away 1,000 cups of Nordstrom cafe coffee to people who pick up a cheat sheet with a lucky stamp.
"It's very competitive," said mall spokesman Matthew Derby. "Retailers are pulling out all the stops to get people shopping and into their stores."
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.