Bellevue Square Black Friday hours

Merchants aspire to counterbalance poor vacation product sales period

By CRAIG HARRIS, P-I REPORTER

Photo: Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

David Tua, left and Bob Levy work after midnight installing snowflake lane at Bellevue Square on Thursday. A little army of workers reached the shopping center with partial plenty of Christmas accessories and worked through the evening and certainly will work for hours Thursday, get yourself ready for shoppers on Friday. lessDavid Tua, left and Bob Levy work after midnight setting up snowflake lane at Bellevue Square on Thursday. A little military of employees reached the mall with semi plenty of xmas decorations and worked ... morePhoto: Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Cinderella got it all wrong.

The celebration in fact starts at midnight in terms of Ebony Friday.

Seeking to lure hard-core Christmas time deal buyers - and offset a projected poor holiday sales period - three Seattle-area retail facilities will start their particular doors right when Thanksgiving officially stops. Other retailers, including J.C. Penney Co., are some hours behind, but they're however opening also prior to when this past year in Friday's early hours for a head begin sales and also to accommodate shoppers.

The moves come as stores battle a soft economy beset with increasing fuel costs and a weak housing industry. Some retailers even had four-day sales starting Sunday to entice consumers before Ebony Friday, a single day after Thanksgiving that has been a major U.S. shopping day.

The nickname symbolizes just about every day when merchants move from becoming in the red, or unprofitable, toward black colored, or profitable, as a result of all-important vacation product sales.

Around 132.9 million People in america will store on the weekend, according to the National Retail Federation, although largest retail trade association predicts sales will rise only 4 % this season to $474.5 billion. The increase is below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent, also it would portray the slowest product sales growth since 2002, when product sales rose 1.3 percent annually following the terrorist assaults.

To drum-up company, Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood for the first time is hosting a couple of no-cost concerts in different areas at 10 p.m. Thursday getting clients primed for midnight insanity. A 3rd show, with Jupiter increasing, starts at 12:01 a.m., and also the shopping mall is giving away above 100 awards, including gift cards and Seattle Mariners souvenirs, hourly from 1 to 5 a.m.

"It makes us stand out on the market, " stated Koren Spas, a spokeswoman for Alderwood Mall, that has about 80 of the 134 shops starting at 12:01 a.m. "we've lots of competitors on the market."

The Tulalip occasion has actually garnered these types of a following that, for the first time, fast Shuttle of Vancouver, B.C., intends to produce 50 Canadian customers if the doorways open.

"its absolutely beyond my range of thinking to obtain on a coach at 8 p.m. through the night and travel a couple of hours going shopping and return home at 4:30 each day, " stated Barry Keys, president of fast Shuttle. "I dismissed it although it was building, but I'm a believer today."

Keys said that while Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October, it is enticing to get across the edge and indulge in the United states getaway weekend since the loonie, Canada's currency, is around on par with all the U.S. dollar. He in addition said you can find much better alternatives and better rates in U.S.

"Canada will pay much cost to be somewhat socialistic, " stated Keys, that is asking $29 for a round trip towards the Tulalip outlet mall. "often america does not offer itself a beneficial pat on back if you are a capitalistic nation."

Michele Rothstein, senior vice-president of marketing for Tulalip outlets, said clients tend to be interested in the midnight orifice because stores offer product sales as much as 40 % down.

"this can be really power shopping, " Rothstein stated.

Tim Lyons, a J.C. Penney spokesman, said the nationwide retailer hasn't however moved to a midnight opening, but its stores are opening an hour early in the day this year, at 4 a.m.

2 yrs ago, the sequence started at 5:30 a.m.

"It really is early, " Lyons stated. " you have to see just what your buyer reacts to. Should they are going to be available to you early anyhow, you want them in the future in and commence shopping. Getting folks in your shop is a good thing."

Lyons, however, stated the Plano, Texas, merchant had decided well before the commercial downturn to start at 4 a.m.

"it isn't a reaction to the past couple of weeks, " he said.

In Seattle, Northgate Mall and Pacific Put tend to be opening one hour sooner than last year, at 5 and 8 a.m., correspondingly, while Pacific destination is offering free package delivery into the downtown area.