HOLIDAY SHOPPING : Retail--Attention Kmart Shoppers, the Door’s Open
Breaking one of retailing’s last taboos, Kmart Corp. opened most of its stores for business on Thanksgiving Day for the first time--drawing bargain hunters as well as those seeking a respite from turkey, televised football and pesky relatives.
“Stores are under so much pressure now that there’s only one day left that remains sacrosanct, and that’s Christmas,” said Alan Millstein, publisher of the retail industry journal Fashion Network Report in New York. “But I guess football widows and husbands besieged by their mothers-in-law will be delighted to get away and go shopping.”
Sure enough, at the Kmart at Western Avenue and Imperial Highway in Los Angeles, more than two dozen shoppers braved the morning chill Thursday, waiting for the 8 a.m. opening.
“We expected a good crowd,” manager Rod Scott said as shoppers filed in. “People are going to come in for those last-minute items like roaster pans” and holiday condiments, he said.
Hawthorne resident Belinda Thompson, out to buy clothes, was among the early shoppers at the Western and Imperial store.
“I think it’s a plus for the store to be open,” she said. “A lot of times you just don’t have the time to go shopping during the week. I’m so busy I don’t even have dinner prepared yet.”
Although many grocery stores, some gas stations, drugstores and convenience markets remained open on Thanksgiving, apparently no other major full-line retailer followed Kmart’s move. By midday Thursday, several Kmart stores were reporting a good response to the opening.
“Store traffic is very good; we are even getting some tourists from Disneyland,” said Mike Hawkins, general manager of the Kmart in Garden Grove.
A Thanksgiving opening was one way the nation’s second-largest retailer sought a competitive edge amid a sluggish economy that experts predict could produce one of the worst Christmas shopping seasons in years.
Other big retailers are pursuing other strategies. Sears, for example, is boosting spending on print and electronic advertising and is counting on a promotional tie-in with the hit movie “E.T.” to help boost holiday sales.
“We wanted to give our customers additional opportunities to shop, since there are fewer shopping days this season,” Kmart spokeswoman Mary Lorenz said. Thanksgiving Day falls on the final Thursday of the month this year. Thus, there will be only 26 “official” holiday shopping days, compared to 32 in 1990.
Kmart and other retailers are also nervous about the upcoming holiday season because tightfisted consumers are hardly spending because of a lack of confidence in the economy and fears about job security. They are especially concerned in California, where a wave of layoffs in the aerospace, retailing, finance, insurance and real estate industries has hit virtually every important segment of the region’s economy.
Some experts had predicted that more and more retailers would stay open on weekends and holidays to serve the growing number of dual-income families who have too little time to shop during the week. But that hasn’t yet materialized.
Some officials even expressed concern that opening on Thanksgiving or Christmas could draw adverse consumer reaction.
“I would think that with our stores being in small towns with lots of church-going people, you could have a lot of ministers preaching against you if you stayed open” on Thanksgiving, said Robert Kahn, a director of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Kmart’s Lorenz said Wednesday that the retailer had received “very few complaints” from consumers who saw advertisements announcing the Thanksgiving store openings. She said virtually all of the company’s 2,356 stores planned to open Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. except for a few Kmarts in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey that were remaining closed because of local restrictions.
In Southern California, consumers appeared to welcome the shopping opportunity.
Lucy Stevens, a Hawthorne resident who works for Hughes Aircraft, said that even though she didn’t have any money to spend Thursday, she and her daughter, Jackie DaSilva, visited Kmart to take advantage of the store’s special policy allowing shoppers to put items on lay-a-way with no money down.
“I just couldn’t resist,” Stevens said as she browsed through women’s apparel. Besides, she added, “I’ve finished preparing for Thanksgiving (dinner). All I have to do is go back and cook the turkey.”
