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Stores Usher in Holiday Shopping Season
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO � Nov 23, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) ― Shoppers ― shrugging off a spate of lead-tainted toy recalls and higher prices for food and gas ― jammed stores before dawn Friday to grab discounted TVs, toys and clothing for the official start of the holiday season, expected to be the weakest retail showing in five years.

Stores are counting on hordes of shoppers who have pulled back in recent months. Merchants need them to keep coming 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, served 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 ― after waiting for 35 hours outside the Fifth Avenue store to make sure they were first in line, he said.

"What people won't do to save 20 bucks," said Judy Fritz, 50. She was among those hoping to snare a bigger bargain ― a Microsoft Zune music player for $79.99, marked down from $199.99, until noon. The 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."

Shoppers from overseas were reveling in exchange rates that made discounts even deeper.

The dollar hit record lows against the euro Friday and reached their lowest point in 12 years against the yen.

"Everything is half price for us," Ashlee Clifford said, smiling, as she shopped at a Circuit City in Manhattan. Clifford lives in Northern Ireland.

She was unaware of the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy ― known in retail circles as Black Friday ― until she arrived in New York.

"It's absolutely madness," said Clifford, 26.

At 5 a.m. in the St. Louis suburb of Maplewood, hundreds of shoppers bundled against the cold stood in a line that snaked around the side of a Wal-Mart.

Inside, they picked up store maps directing them to the bargains.

Sheila Prater, 51, of University City, left about 20 minutes later with a $144 Magnavox DVD recorder as a gift for her husband and two HP deskjet printers, one for home and one for her daycare business. She said she paid $34 each for the printers.

But the shopping ritual was much calmer than it had been two years ago, she said.

"They just let them go like cattle," she said. "My heart didn't have to pump as fast this year."

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.

There are no new, must-have holiday items like Apple Inc.'s iPod, though certain products are doing well. At toy stores, Smart Cycle, from Mattel's Fisher-Price, and Jakks Pacific's EyeClops, a handheld device that magnifies objects, are among the early hits, though sales have been stymied by concerns over Chinese-made toys. At clothing stores, dressses have been a strong seller, according to Dana Telsey, CEO of Telsey Advisory Group, an independent research firm. In electronics, there are no new game consoles, though shortages of Nintendo's Wii, which made its debut a year ago, have kept shoppers alert to whatever has dribbled in.

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. In fact, the weekend only accounts for about 10 percent of overall holiday sales. But it does set the tone since what consumers see that day influences where they will shop for the rest of the year.

C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, 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 writers Adam Goldman in New York City, Betsy Taylor of St. Louis, Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis