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 Stores are counting on hordes of shoppers who have been pulling back in recent months amid a challenging economy to snap up bargains. Merchants need them to keep coming back throughout the holiday season to make their sales goals.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, threw 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 noon, Toys "R" Us Inc. offered 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 opened at 4 a.m., an hour earlier than last year, is 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.
"If they were selling it, we were buying it," Tom Shea, 23, said as he surveyed his purchases at a midtown Manhattan Best Buy store. He said he, some friends and a cousin were the first through the doors when the store opened at 4 a.m.
Shea, of Brooklyn, and two friends spent a total of about $2,500 on two laptop computers, an Xbox game console, a vacuum and several other items. They estimated they had saved about $1,500.
As Toys "R" Us Times Square opened at 5 a.m., hundreds of people flooded into the store. They quickly formed sometimes fractious lines to buy individual toys and other items.
"What people won't do to save 20 bucks," said Judy Fritz, 50. She was among those hoping to snare a Microsoft Zune music player for $79.99, marked down from $199.99
-- until noon. Demand for the device was so brisk that Fritz feared the store might run out, even though it had been open for only half an hour.
The Las Vegas resident and her husband, Bill, had arrived with a game plan: "One person plants himself (in a line), and the other person hunts."
At the Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck, N.D., Dolly Heinert and her husband Marv, of Mandan, N.D., snapped up a keyboard on sale at J.C. Penney for their granddaughter and were "heading onward and upward" to other stores, she said.
"Us nuts people," she said. "We're crazy. But we love it."
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 Her husband was a little less enthusiastic.
"Unfortunately, all her shopping mates left, so I'm filling in," he said.
Recognizing a potentially tough shopping season ahead, stores began 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 suffered as consumers struggle with higher gas and food prices as well as a slumping housing market.
The Heinerts have concerns about recent gasoline and diesel supply problems in North Dakota, and how they will respond to already-high fuel prices. "We're trying to spend less (on holiday gifts) but we'll see how it works out," Dolly Heinert said.
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.
Beemer noted that if shoppers walk into a store on Black Friday and like what they see, they will more likely go back during the Christmas season.
"This is their biggest chance to win at retail during Christmas season," Beemer said.
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.
[Associated
Press; By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO]
Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in New York City, Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis and Sofia Mannos in Washington contributed to this report.
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