Early birds gobble up deals before turkey

DENVER-- Even before carving the turkey and slicing into the pumpkin pie, millions of Americans snapped up hot shopping deals on Thanksgiving.

While many stores were closed, large retailers like Kmart and RadioShack staged early-morning openings a day before the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, Black Friday.

'It's kind of like a war zone, a bunch of people fighting over things,' Jose Ramos, 16, said, his breath steaming in the pre-dawn darkness as he waited outside a Denver Kmart.

Ramos was one of more than 20 people lined up outside the store awaiting its 6 a.m. opening. Inside the front doors, displays offered 50% off coats.

Store manager Carol Thompson laughed when asked if she had somewhere else to be today.

'I could be sleeping,' she said with a smile. 'But it's all about the members. If the customers want to come shopping, well, that's why we're here.'

Like many stores, Kmart has switched to a voucher system for especially big-ticket sale items, like televisions. Thompson knows that if she only has five big screen televisions to sell at a steep discount, the first five people who want to buy them in line assured of getting them, and no one else has to rush to snag one.

Thompson said her staff was holding a series of shares Thanksgiving dinners behind the scenes, and many employees were working shortened shifts so they could head home early to be with their families

Ramos said Thanksgiving-day shopping is a tradition in his family. But what was he planning to buy?

'Whatever my mom needs,' he said.

Moving store hours into the holiday has become an increasingly popular strategy among major retailers in recent years; this year 25 million people are expected to shop Thanksgiving, according to the National Retail Federation.

Kmart has been opening at 6 a.m. on the holiday for 23 years. Spokesperson Jamie Stein says people line up as early as 3 a.m. with lines that grow to more than 100 people in some cases. But RadioShack, one of the brands struggling most in the retail industry today, will open on Thanksgiving for the first time this year, and beat most retailers' openings by at least nine hours. The decision is a result of evolving shopping trends, the company says.

'Given the customer demand for store hours on Thanksgiving last year, we made the decision to open on Thanksgiving,' RadioShack spokesperson Andrea McCauley said in a company statement about holiday hours earlier this month. 'It gives us the opportunity to stay competitive.'

Both Kmart and RadioShack have been struggling amid store closures and declining customer traffic. Sales at RadioShack stores open at least a year were down 20% in the second quarter and the company is in the midst of closing 200 stores. Kmart parent Sears has also closed at least 130 underperforming stores this year across both brands.

Whether a mass of customers will actually show up at dawn on a family holiday for big box discounts or just a few hours later for phone accessories and other electronics is a risk the retailers take as part of the 'battle for mindshare,' says Joe Jackman, CEO of Jackman Reinvents, a company that helps businesses reposition themselves.

'It's not so much around the specific offer at this moment,' he says. 'If a brand like RadioShack says, 'we're going to be open early on Thanksgiving Day,' they're actually upping the chances that the consumer is going to plan that trip into their itinerary.'

RadioShack may also benefit from the fact that many of its locations are conveniently located and closer to where people live compared to big box stores, Jackman says. Stein says Kmart is positioned to serve eager customers looking for a jump start on deals just as much as last minute meal items like cranberry sauce and napkins. Whatever customers are shopping for, every hour a retailer is open while competitors are closed has the potential to grab more money from shoppers, Jackman says.

'They're really working hard to get customers in the door and get people to think of them,'' he says. 'If you're a challenged business you're going to be a lot more aggressive and scrappier.'

Karen Thomas, an etiquette consultant from Torrington, Conn., says she and her husband plan Thanksgiving-weekend shopping around store's shopping circulars. This year, they're headed to Target and Staples. Her Kmart is closing and she doesn't need anything from RadioShack, but isn't opposed to shopping early on Thanksgiving.

'In this economy, if the retailers are open I would definitely take advantage of it if there were items that were on my list that I needed to get, at a good price,' says Thomas, 48.

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