Retailers open doors, offer online deals on Thanksgiving

NEW YORK -- The start of the holiday shopping season crept earlier into Thursday as retailers lured shoppers to stores and online ahead of the traditional Black Friday kick-off.

For the second year in a row, CompUSA Inc. opened its doors on Thanksgiving, with stores scheduled to open at 9 p.m., except in Massachusetts where local laws preclude holiday hours. CompUSA also added an extra incentive for consumers this year by providing pumpkin pie for those in line.

Iconic toy store FAO Schwarz -- with locations in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas -- opened its doors on the holiday as well. Store hours for the three locations were 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In the past, holiday shopping on Thanksgiving Day was limited to discount stores like Kmart and Wal-Mart, as well as grocery retailers and 24-hour convenience stores like 7-Eleven Inc. Kmart, operated by Sears Holdings Corp., took it one step further, offering for the first time Thanksgiving Day specials on TVs to GPS systems.

"Some people just can't wait until Friday," said Kirsten Whipple, a Sears spokeswoman. "Thanksgiving dinner is done, and they have moved on." Kmart's special Thanksgiving deals included an Olevia 32-inch LCD HDTV for $419.99 and a Magellan GPS system for $129.99.

Dozens of shoppers at Kmart in Raleigh, N.C., were met with doughnuts and coffee as early as 7 a.m., and when the store opened, they quickly cleared the shelves of top-selling items: Nintendo's Wii, selling for $249.99; the Magellan Maestro 3100 Navigation System for $129.99 and 32-inch Olevia LCD television for $419.99.

Rick Long was one of the first shoppers in line and snagged his only planned purchase: the 32-inch flat screen.

"There's actually one that's going to be cheaper tomorrow, but there's going to be a bigger line," Long said after hoisting his purchase into the back of his car. "So, I figure paying the extra $20 is worth it."

The lure of discounted computers brought Janice Kosak-Ceasar to a Best Buy store north of Houston at 4:45 a.m. Thursday -- 24 hours and 15 minutes before its holiday sale opening.

Kosak-Ceasar, along with her 9-year-old son, Caydin, were first in a line of about 12 people bundled in winter clothing and sleeping bags.

"I'm doing this for my mom," said Kosak-Ceasar, 36, a registered nurse from nearby Spring. "She really wants a laptop, so here I am. Kind of stupid, huh?"

Joy Greene, a nursing assistant, found Thanksgiving Day shopping to be a delightful interlude.

"Lots of people are home cooking and the store is basically free for me to roam and get what I need," Greene said as she roamed the aisles at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Gates, a suburb of Rochester, N.Y. "It's good. You don't have to push to get this, to get that.

"Turkey's on," she added. "I left my daughter checking on that till I get back."

Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, said the Thanksgiving openings may be a way of generating early enthusiasm ahead of a holiday season that's widely expected to be sluggish. Still, she said, no matter how stiff the competition is, for those new in the game, opening on Thanksgiving is still considered a tough decision when weighing employee time off and other factors.

"I think at this point Thanksgiving is still very revered in the retail industry," Davis said. "A lot of retailers just don't want to touch Thursday."

Web shopping is a different matter. More retailers are pushing shoppers to buy online on Thanksgiving, instead of just researching deals for Black Friday, named because it was traditionally when stores became profitable.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which last year offered one or two online specials on Thanksgiving, is offering specials on 20 to 30 products online. CompUSA.com is featuring one-day, online-only sales on Thanksgiving -- on products including computers, LCD flat-panel TVs and portable DVD players -- and free shipping on certain items.

Amazon.com Inc. held a poll to allow visitors to vote for items they want to see drastically discounted beginning Thursday. The Web site also is offering shipping incentives and other deals spanning the weekend.

Toys "R" Us' site and eToys.com are both featuring a slew of online specials just for Thanksgiving. Toysrus.com is featuring up to 65 percent savings on everything from Matchbox cars to Spider-Man 3 interactive figures, while eToys.com is offering up to 60 percent off on select items.

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AP Writer Mike Baker in Raleigh, N.C., and Business Writers Ben Dobbin in Rochester and John Porretto in Houston contributed to this report.