Retailers starting early to lure Friday shoppers

Hunting season is about to begin, and it has nothing to do with turkey or deer.

In the wee hours of Friday morning, people will be fighting off the Thanksgiving calories and loading their credit and debit cards for bear as they set out in search of holiday shopping bargains. Black Friday is upon us.

The day after Thanksgiving marks the unofficial opening of the holiday shopping season and is typically one of the biggest shopping days of the year for retailers. Dubbed "Black Friday" because holiday sales typically push retail profits out of the red and into the black, the day kicks off a two-month span during which stores will take in 25 percent to 40 percent of their annual revenue. On this day, as in years past, area stores will open their doors hours earlier than usual to a waiting horde of eager shoppers often 200 to 300 strong.

This year the National Retail Federation is projecting a 4.5 percent jump in holiday sales from last year. That notwithstanding, area retailers aren't taking anything for granted. In addition to the bevy of blockbuster sales going on from dawn until close on Friday, many stores will be offering free giveaways, special services and featured attractions to lure shoppers.

J.C. Penney will again be giving away an updated version of its traditional snow globe to customers arriving at 5:30 a.m., when the store opens at Westpark Shoppingtown West Park. Store manager Gary McDowell said that last year his store opened at 6 a.m. with 200 waiting outside. But when he arrived an hour earlier to start setting up, he saw over 400 people waiting outside mall neighbor K-B Toy Store, which opened at 5 a.m., as it will again this year.

"This year, we're opening earlier to try and take advantage of that foot traffic," McDowell said.

Westfield Shoppingtown senior marketing manager Joyce Hunter said a number of other mall stores are doing the same. She said Black Friday usually sees a 50 percent increase in shoppers at the mall from any other typical Friday.

Hunter said the mall will also feature an added attraction for customers. Wing and Prayer Promotions will set up an exotic bird fair in the shopping center from Friday through Sunday. Instead of admission to the bird fair, they will be asking for donations of non-perishable food items for area food banks.

Target will be offering its own unique service to its early-morning Friday shoppers. Through its Web site, www.target.com, the national retailer is offering wake up calls for early-morning Friday and Saturday shoppers. Customers can arrange to be roused from slumber by a recording of Darth Vader, Cheech Marin, Ice T or a number of other personalities.

Cape Girardeau Target store manager Rick Done said he may need one of those calls for himself so he can get to the store early to prepare for its 6 a.m. opening. Done said in past years, Black Friday has brought lines of people extending all the way across the vast parking lot to the road. To accommodate this crowd, he said that almost all of the store's 130-plus staff will be on hand to restock, check out and direct, as well as to help maintain a level of safety among a ravenous bargain-hunting crowd.

Twenty-four-hour retailers, like Wal-Mart, are presented with a different challenge. Even though the holiday sales don't kick in at the registers until 6 a.m., Wal-Mart manager Tim Bryant said that people usually start coming in at 3 a.m. to grab what they want. By 6 a.m., he said there is usually a crowd of at least 500 people with arms and carts full of merchandise waiting at the front of the store to check out at sale prices.

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137