honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, November 27, 2008

Some Hawaii retailers getting early start on Black Friday

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

MAKE A LIST ...

Need help stretching your dollar? Here are some tips from the National Retail Federation, an industry association, for shopping on a budget:

• Spread out holiday purchases throughout the year — or at least throughout the holiday season. Shopping last minute often results in poor purchases from feeling rushed. (Note: there are 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, compared with 32 last year.)

• Make a list of everyone you need to buy for and how much you plan to spend on them before shopping. And stick to it.

• Sign up to receive e-mails from favorite retailers. Many sales in this extremely promotional holiday season may only be offered to a retailer's most loyal customers.

• Be vigilant about searching for promotions in newspapers and on retailer Web sites.

• Compare prices and products on the Internet before setting foot in a store. Online research can save time and money spent traveling between stores.

spacer spacer

OPEN EARLY

A selection of Black Friday store and mall opening times:

STORES

Today

KB Toys (Windward Mall), midnight

The Disney Store, midnight

Wal-Mart, midnight (Ke'eaumoku location will not close at all on Thanksgiving)

Tomorrow

Armani Exchange (Ala Moana), 5 a.m.

Circuit City, 5 a.m.

KB Toys (Kahala Mall), 5 a.m.

Macy's, 5 a.m.

Sears, 5 a.m.

Toys "R" Us, 5 a.m.

The Children's Place, 5 a.m.

Kmart, 6 a.m.

MALLS

Today

Waikele Premium Outlets, midnight

Tomorrow

Ala Moana Center, 6 a.m.

Pearlridge Center, 6 a.m.

Windward Mall, 6 a.m.

Kahala Mall, 9 a.m.

Ward Centers, 9 a.m.

*Opening times are for most stores

spacer spacer

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.