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Shoppers eager for Black Friday bargains waited in lines today for the midnight opening of retailers, such as the Aiea Best Buy.
Others decided to forgo Thanksgiving altogether to enjoy a leisurely day of shopping.
Zachary Fletcher shared his Thanksgiving meal this year with four strangers he met while camping since Sunday on the sidewalk fronting Best Buy in Aiea.
The 22-year-old resident of Hickam Air Force Base was first in line waiting to snag the store’s Black Friday deals, specifically a $180 Samsung Galaxy Tab and $280 Asus tablet.
“They think I’m crazy,” Fletcher said of his parents.
After camping for four nights at Best Buy, he shared his mother’s homemade meal Thursday with the group of shoppers waiting to scoop up the hottest electronic door-busters come midnight.
“I do it for fun. I actually enjoy this. I do it for the deals, but I do it for the thrill. I love camping. I love meeting new people. I love the thrill of the unknown.”
Latoya Artis, a 26-year-old Mililani resident who was third in line, also joined the feast with the group she met while camping alone since Monday evening. “We became our own family for Thanksgiving,” she said.
At 8 p.m. the doors opened at the Pearlridge Toys “R” Us store, and about 600 customers were in a line that stretched all the way to Moanalua Freeway.
Store manager Dave Palmer said he expected three-hour door-buster specials like Leap Pad electronics, Ride-On cycles and the latest Barbies to be the first items to run out.
But among some of the first shoppers, it wasn’t even toys on their minds.
The cart belonging to Waianae resident Layne Viernes, 22, was stocked with yellow boxes of diapers. Regularly $16.99, a box of 84 was going for $10.
Downtown resident William Chung, 30, had a light load purchasing 16-gigabyte memory cards for $5 each. They normally go for $10 to $15 each, he said.
Many local and national retailers are opening doors earlier than ever this year in hopes of luring more anxious shoppers, some of whom plan all year for their annual spending spree.
Kate Torres shopped with her parents, husband and two young children all day Thursday to avoid the crowds on Black Friday, the start of the holiday shopping season.
Instead of turkey, the family had brunch in Chinatown before heading to Waikele Premium Outlets, where at least 10 stores were open all day and parking lots were full by noon.
“Usually we go shopping on Thanksgiving because all the good deals are there,” said Torres, who plans to spend between $600 and $1,000, roughly the same as last year.
The holiday allows the family bonding time without the hassle of preparing a Thanksgiving meal.
“Even though we live together, we hardly see each other,” Torres added. “Right now we’re all off.
There’s less people. The discounts today are usually good enough instead of just doing the rush tomorrow.”
An estimated 17 percent of consumers, or 41 million people, planned to shop on Thanksgiving, according to a holiday tracking survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs. That compares with 16 percent last year.
However, Black Friday is still the busiest shopping day of the weekend, with one-third, or 80.5 million, of consumers planning to shop.
The National Retail Federation is projecting a 4.1 percent boost in holiday spending this year to an estimated $586.1 billion as 147 million consumers hit the malls over the weekend and thousands of retailers open, many for the first time, on the holiday.
“People accepted Black Friday, so the retailers think, ‘Why not move it back?’ If we’re all open Thursday, then no one has the advantage,” Mike McCarthy, professor of marketing at Miami University, said in a news release. “If retailers know you’re going to buy, there’s a bigger share if you get a consumer in your store earlier, and if consumers think they’re getting a great deal, they’d rather leave the turkey cold.”
Mililani resident Kalani Navares, who was shopping Thursday with his wife, Pua, and their two daughters, said there is an advantage to opening earlier, both for businesses and consumers.
“When it used to be everyone opened at midnight, it was too chaotic and even dangerous,” said Navares, a Honolulu police officer. “People would fight. But like this, where they spread it out, it’s not as crowded. It’s mellow and there’s a lot of parking.”
Haunani Lee-Vincent, 25, was first in line at Toys “R” Us, changing her family’s Thanksgiving to Wednesday to claim her spot by midnight that day.
“It’s like a game plan. It builds up during the whole year; you get excited for that one day,” said Lee-Vincent, who estimates she will save $800 this year from Black Friday deals. “When you’re first in line, it’s all open, no one’s in front of you and you get to go and pick up whatever you want. It travels on to like wrapping the presents and then giving the presents and then seeing them open it. It just makes them happy. When my son gets older, I’ll be like, ‘You know what I used to do for you?’”
Retailers such as Amazon.com and Target Corp., which traditionally kept Black Friday ads secret, have already begun spreading deals throughout the week to lure shoppers who want to beat the rush.
“The main reason cited by one-third of consumers planning to shop on Thanksgiving Day was that it would be an earlier opportunity to find bargains,” Michael Niemira, ICSC vice president of research and chief economist, said in a news release.
But some mainland workers at big-box chains including Target and Walmart have launched campaigns to stop retailers from infringing upon the once-sacred holiday.
“I don’t believe people should compromise their family values or traditions to save a buck,” said Kaimuki resident Renee Tulonghari, 39, who plans to shop at midnight after Thanksgiving. “Although I am missing out on really good specials that start at 8 p.m., I choose to forgo it and spend time with my family. Everybody’s soon to be bypassing one of the most important family holidays.”
Tulonghari’s aunt, Donna Soares, from Maui, added, “We need to pause as a nation and as individuals to take time to give thanks. We shouldn’t overrun Thanksgiving with Christmas.”
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Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Y.K. Pang contributed to this report.
