As usual, big retailers greeted shoppers at midnight or other outlandish times to take advantage of Black Friday super deals. But shoppers also should consider spending their dollars at Hawaii-based small businesses and retailers that are responding with their own unique goods and services. Expenditures in these lean times should be directed broadly toward an economic rebound, or the nearest sign of it.

A growing number of stores were to open at midnight this morning at Ala Moana and Pearlridge shopping centers and Windward Mall. Others at Ala Moana and Pearlridge had opened even hours earlier on Thanksgiving Day. Deals were promoted by Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Toys ‘R’ Us, Sears, Kmart, Macy’s and numerous others long before the doors were even opened.

Left shortchanged and a step behind were local stores and small businesses — so in came American Express last year to launch Small Business Saturday. It’s a commendable concept, especially so during tough economic times that have squeezed smaller, entrepreneurial outfits with slim profit margins. The credit company is offering $25 to AmEx card owners who shop at a locally owned business. Last year, 200,000 customers received such $25 credits for shopping.

"Small businesses create half of the jobs in the private sector," American Express CEO Ken Chenault told CBS Evening News. Those businesses "have created 65 percent of the net new jobs over the last 17 years. And so what small business is all about is where the individual can help our economy because we need to create jobs. And if people support independently owned small businesses in their community, they can make a difference."

Consumer spending accounts for some 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, so much is riding on the success of holiday retail as an indicator of economic rebound for the coming year.

"A bad holiday season would raise recession fears again, whereas a strong one would start to dispel those fears," said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics.

Regardless of the economy or in some cases because of it, many shoppers have shown they are enthused about shopping in wee hours to take advantage of extraordinary deals, such as less than $500 for a 50-inch HDTV, less than $200 for a laptop and only $100 for a Nikon digital camera.

On Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, avid shoppers have good reason to be convinced they will find bargains on items destined for a spot under the Christmas tree. It’s only a matter of time before a category of retailers puts an imprint on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. So now it’s officially begun: The season to bring smiles to the faces of friends and family — and to contribute to America’s recovering economy.