If you open, they will come.

That’s what Hawaii retailers are saying as they start Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving to compete for a larger share of the retail pie.

“People come. It’s not like we’re open on Thanksgiving and no one shows up. That’s part of their Thanksgiving now … to go out and find the good deals,” said Debbie Shima, store manager for Walmart on Keeaumoku Street, which is expecting shoppers to start lining up at 2 p.m. Thursday to score door-busters at 6 p.m. “This is the Super Bowl of retail, so we anticipate it to be extremely busy. In all retail, but especially for Walmart, this is what we wait for.”

More retailers are opening earlier than ever on Thanksgiving and are offering deeper discounts to pre-empt customers from going to other stores, said Nathaniel Hartmann, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Hawaii Shidler College of Business.

“Everybody has a limited amount of money to spend,” he said. “Stores that open up earlier have a greater probability of securing a larger proportion of the money that you have to spend.”

Tanna Dang, owner of clothing retailer Eden in Love, ordered three times the merchandise the boutique had a year ago and expects a 15 percent increase in sales at three different locations at Ward Warehouse and Kakaako’s new South Shore Market. She also has lined up about 70 volunteers to help with her annual Black Friday event. In exchange for their time, the volunteers get to shop the sale early.

“We’re going to go gangbusters. Last year we had like 1,000 transactions within the first hour. For a small boutique like us, that’s huge,” she said, adding that the store is offering to shuttle shoppers between locations. “There’re so many ways you can increase revenue especially on Black Friday because people wake up to shop. That day alone will accumulate to two months’ worth of sales. It’s that crazy.”

Nearly 6 in 10 U.S. consumers — an estimated 137.4 million people — plan to shop this weekend, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. That’s up from 58.7 percent, or 135.8 million people, last year. The retail group forecasts November and December sales (excluding autos, gas and restaurants) to grow 3.6 percent to $655.8 billion.

“There’s going to be lots of people shopping, but the people that are shopping are going to probably spend a little more than they have in the past,” Hartmann said. “We are seeing jobs starting to come back, the economy’s getting a little better and people have more disposable income. They’re going to be more comfortable making bigger purchases on discretionary items than they have in the recent past.”

That’s what Best Buy is hoping.

“From an economy standpoint, this year seems like people are spending money. What’s going to draw customers in is definitely the offers we have this year,” said Sean Oliver, general manager at Best Buy in Iwilei. “This year we’re well positioned with a lot more to offer our customers with regards to the latest technology. It’s gotten better year over year.”

Meanwhile, online sales are projected to increase as much as 10 percent over last year to $117 billion, the National Retail Federation said.

Fred Paine, general manager of Pearlridge Center, expects mall sales to be up 5 percent over last year on Black Friday as consumerism continues to grow.

“I really do think this year seems to have been a bit stronger in retail sales than in years past for a while, so I feel good,” he said. “Everybody’s gotten the message that sales sell, and they are going to have some really great deals out there. They know that four-letter word, s-a-l-e, really brings people in. The ones that have done it really prospered.

“A few years ago, I remember over Black Friday there were tenants open, but they didn’t do anything different than previous years of running their store and it was just another business day,” Paine said. “Whereas people who put things on sale and do some deep discounts really do well because everyone’s in the mall for the same reason, which is to get a good deal and spend money.”