Shoppers nab Black Friday deals

Oahu malls and retailers stayed open — or reopened — early Friday to try to ring up more Black Friday sales to kick-start the holiday shopping season that continues across the island today with Small Business Saturday followed by Cyber Monday.

Windward Mall in Kaneohe opened at 5 p.m. Thursday. While some of the mall’s retailers opened, closed and then reopened Friday morning, anchor tenant Macy’s welcomed customers throughout the night, said the mall’s marketing manager, Kelly O’Sullivan.

Early-bird shoppers were encouraged to push aside their turkey and pumpkin pie and show up Thursday at Windward Mall, where the first 500 customers were given lottery-style scratch cards that offered the chance at gifts ranging from a cookie to a $500 Sears gift card, O’Sullivan said.

It was a first-time promotion for Windward Mall that “went great,” O’Sullivan said. “It was very well received.”

Today retail organizers are pushing Small Business Saturday to encourage shoppers to spread their purchases beyond big-box retailers.

Kailua small businesses are working with Windward Mall on promotions that include getting a stamp at each business that customers visit to qualify for prizes.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has teamed up with the Hawaii Small Business Development Center to encourage shoppers to visit businesses along the proposed 20-mile rail route that are offering discounts and promotions.

Small businesses today are trying to capture some of the throngs of customers that poured into Pearlridge Center in Aiea when the mall opened at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Pearlridge opened ahead of Black Friday for the second year in a row, which spokeswoman Deborah Sharkey believes helped even out the crowds.

Between 8:30 p.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday, she said, the mall was “extremely busy.”

Twenty-five local and mainland stores inside Pearlridge stayed open throughout the night, Sharkey said.

“It seemed like this year the lines moved faster,” she said. “There were a lot of employees in every store. That provided a high level of help.”

Sears’ “door-buster” deals on appliances and tools were “extremely, extremely popular,” Sharkey said, “along with anything related to ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel (comics characters) and the ‘Trolls’ movie — whether related to toys or whether related to apparel.”

Malls don’t measure attendance, she said, “but anecdotally we know it was very strong.”

Mark Mendoza, 40, of Mililani and his cousin Rose Villon, 40, of Pearl City cleared their Thanksgiving plates and headed out to Waikele Premium Outlets for what they call “Black Thursday, or our pre-Black Friday,” Mendoza said.

He ended up buying a heavily discounted Coach backpack for himself, while Villon bought Coach items as Christmas gifts, along with a wallet for herself.

After visiting a few more Waikele stores, Mendoza grew tired of the crowds.

“Lines were out the door and it was just too crazy,” he said. “People were hitting you with bags and so forth and not saying, ‘Excuse me.’”

But Mendoza, a Black Friday shopping veteran, plans to do it all again next year.

“If you play it right and you’ve got a good dinner in you and you’re full of energy from a turkey dinner, it’s worth it,” he said. “I’d do it again.”