Thanksgiving Deal Hunt Draws Millions Away From Dinner.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-28/thanksgiving-deal-hunt-draws-millions-away-from-dinner.html

Terrance Martin, a 42-year-old truck driver, lined up at a Best Buy Co. store in Paramus, New Jersey, at 7 a.m. yesterday to score an almost $350 discount on a 50-inch Panasonic television.

“It was worth it for that kind of deal,” said Martin, who’s from nearby Fair Lawn. Even though he spent almost 10 hours waiting for the store to open, he didn’t miss the holiday entirely: His sister brought him turkey and yams.

Martin was one of the 25.6 million Americans that the National Retail Federation expected to hit the stores or shop online yesterday, drawn by stores offering discounts on holiday gifts earlier than ever. Millions more are projected to shop today through Sunday, kicking off a holiday season that the NRF forecasts will be the best in three years, helped by falling unemployment, rising wages and lower gas prices.

Shoppers seeking bargains yesterday had plenty of options. J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) unlocked its doors at 5 p.m., compared with 8 p.m. in 2013. Macy’s Inc. (M) and Target Corp. opened at 6 p.m., two hours earlier than last year.

“Being first is incredibly important,” said Pat Dermody, president of Retale, a mobile application that aggregates circulars from major retailers. “If you’re first, you’ve got customers who are full of spirit and full of cash.”

Many consumers already may have begun shopping as retailers experimented with spreading their deals throughout the week. Express Inc. (EXPR) began offering 50 percent off everything starting Nov. 25 through noon today, and Target rolled out pre-Black Friday deals of up to 60 percent off on some items.

Wal-Mart Deals

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is meting out its holiday bargains over the course of five days. The retailer’s “New Black Friday” event includes sales in stores and on Walmart.com that began at 12:01 a.m. yesterday and run through Cyber Monday.

“They took what was a small, compressed event and made a week out of it,” Rod Sides, who tracks retail for consulting firm Deloitte LLP in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in an interview. “Everybody used to have a battle strategy. Folks are not as focused on Black Friday as they once were.”

About 140 million people are expected to shop in stores and online yesterday through Sunday, about the same number as last year, according to the NRF, a Washington-based trade group. Retail sales in November and December may rise 4.1 percent this year, beating last year’s 3.1 percent gain, the organization said.

Discounting Frenzy

Sales already are getting a hand from consumer sentiment that’s the highest since before the recession, boosting confidence that the trend will continue through the holiday season. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, grew at a 2.2 percent annualized rate last quarter, exceeding estimates for a 1.8 percent improvement. The gain was spread across durable and non-durable goods.

Consumer spending also may be buoyed by gasoline dropping below $3, a psychological barrier that may help open up wallets, said Bob Drbul, a New York-based retail analyst at Nomura Securities International. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.81 earlier this week, the lowest level in four years, according to the automobile group AAA.

To capitalize on the extra spending money, retailers are trying to one-up each other. Wal-Mart will sell an RCA tablet for $29, DVDs for $1.96 and a 50-inch high-definition television for $218. Best Buy (BBY), meanwhile, will offer a 55-inch Samsung 4K television for $899, down from $1,400.

Not that the discounting frenzy is anything new, said Retale’s Dermody, who’s based in Chicago.

“I wouldn’t say, on a category basis, there are discounts that are outrageous this year compared to what they were last year,” she said.

Holiday shopping is key for retailers, with sales in November and December accounting for about 19 percent of annual revenue, according to the NRF. The term Black Friday is believed to derive from the myth that retailers didn’t become profitable until this day each year.

Customers walk through a Macy's Inc. store ahead of Black Friday in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014.

Customers walk through a Macy's Inc. store ahead of Black Friday in New York, U.S., on Nov. 27, 2014.

A customer loads a television into a shopping cart at a Target Corp. store ahead of Black Friday in Mentor, Ohio, U.S., on Nov. 27, 2014. 

Shoppers wait in line as snow falls outside a Target Corp. store ahead of Black Friday in Mentor, Ohio, U.S., on Nov. 27, 2014.