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It’s in the bag McCULLY resident Raenette Ung, in search of a Celebration Holiday Barbie doll, arrived at K B Toys at Ala Moana Center at 3:30 this morning.
for early shoppers
Some Hawaii retailers opened
early today, expecting bumper
crowds for this year's
Christmas seasonBy Tim Ruel
Star-BulletinWhy? "The sale," she said matter-of-factly.
The newly released doll cost $19.99, while other Barbie models were just $2 to $3. Many toys, from Pokemon dolls to board games, averaged around $7 to $20.
While Ung was the first person in line, she was joined by 20 other eager shoppers by 4:15 a.m. When the doors opened just before 5, the line had more than 100 people and stretched around the corner of a nearby construction barricade.
It took nearly half an hour just to get everyone inside the thin store on Ala Moana's ground floor.
Other stores also opened early today, the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season, the five weeks that stretch until late Christmas Eve.
Merchants often call today "Black Friday," referring to the hope that the holiday shopping season will put their stores in the black for the year. They view the first few days after Thanksgiving as a bellwether for the season.
Throughout Hawaii, and across the nation, early-bird shoppers lined up at stores before dawn to get a jump on their shopping.
Store manager Robin Lo said 5 a.m. is the earliest K B ever opened, and turnout was strong. "It's better than last year."
Ung said it was worth coming in before the crack of dawn. Last year, she went to K B at 7 a.m. and waited an hour to get inside.
Kara Yamamoto of Kaimuki got in line at 4:20, also seeking Barbie dolls for her daughter, along with Hot Wheels toy cars. Yamamoto said the line looked longer than previous holiday seasons.
"This is a good turnout," said Yamamoto, 40, who thought the lines were a good sign. "The economy needs it. It's finally picking up."
Shortly after the store opened, Yamamoto was dragging two large bags full of toys out the store behind her. "Got 'em!" she said.
Hawaii is expected to have a strong shopping season, following a decade of economic slowdown.
It's a different story on the mainland, however.
Analysts expect nationwide retail sales to increase 3 percent to 4 percent at stores this holiday shopping season, compared with 7 percent last year. Many mainland retailers are relying on discounts and other special offers to attract consumers. Even the increases in online sales are slowing, with sales projections in December of $11.6 billion up about 66 percent from last year's $7 billion, according to Jupiter Research. In previous years, holiday Internet sales were known to double or triple.
Hawaii merchants and analysts say the strong retail sales so far this year and other economic indicators all point to a profitable season here.
Shoppers' enthusiasm was evident this morning at the Sports Authority on Ward Avenue, where nearly 100 people walked through the doors at the 6 a.m. opening.
One of the first in line, Annette Pedrina of Kailua, had been waiting since 4:20, hoping to get the Roller Cruiser scooter on sale for $39.99, one of the best prices she's seen for the aluminum model.
Pedrina admitted she hadn't planned on coming in so early, but her friends said the lines would be impossible, so they were getting up at 2 a.m. "I said that's crazy, then after a while, I thought I should get up early!"
David Domingo Cervera, 40, was eyeing a 17-piece golf set for $99.99, a price that far outstripped most used clubs he had seen, he said. It's all he wanted. "My wife's taking care of everything else."
Cervera said he was surprised by the large turnout at Sports Authority.
Manager Yukio Yukawa said he expects 1,200 people to show up today. Table games and the scooters are big this year, he said. By 6:15 a.m., Sports Authority's parking lot was full.
The early-bird frenzy was also apparent on the neighbor islands.At Kaahumanu Center in central Maui, scores of stores opened at 8 a.m., an hour and a half earlier than usual, and at least one opened at 7 a.m.
"The mall was pretty packed by 8 o'clock this morning. It's still early, but just walking around the mall this morning, I think it's going to be a great year, probably better than last year," said Scott Crockford, vice president of retail property.
Crockford said some people were waiting at 3 a.m. at K B Toys to get into the store.
Crockford said retailers rely heavily on Christmas business. "A lot of our retailers do 20 to 25 percent of their business at that time," he said.
On the Big Island, the flow of customers at K-Mart in Kailua-Kona this morning was close to double the traffic of last year, said its general manager, Robert O'Meara.
"There's extremely strong demand based on the improvement of the economy," he said. "Consumers are spending."
O'Meara said the store opened this morning an hour earlier and will close an hour later than the typical hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
On Thanksgiving day, he said, a lot of customers from Hilo visited the store. "We were the only discount store on the island open."
Back at Ala Moana Center, Sears opened at 7 a.m. with a couple hundred people waiting outside, general manager Gill Berger said.
"We're running ahead of last year. Single digit, but it's still ahead," Berger said at mid-morning. Sears tallies transactions every three hours.
Retailers at other malls confirmed traffic was up over last year. J.C. Penney at Pearlridge said it was sold out of a particular video cassette recorder within 20 minutes of opening at 7 a.m.
And Wal-Mart in Mililani reported a steady stream of customers arriving ever since the store opened at midnight. "Everything seems to be moving well," said general manager Bryan Wall.
Star-Bulletin reporter Gary Kubota contributed to this report.