Expect bigger discounts and more items than ever to go on sale come black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Experts say Hawaii retailers have more incentive this year to empty the store shelves.
As the holiday shopping season officially starts on Friday, the rush is on to give customers what they want, sales, discounts, and values.
All amount to the same thing.
Those in the know say it's a shopper's market, and it's looking to be better than ever.
"We saw deep discounts last holiday, it's gonna be even more so this holiday and that's just the only way merchandise is gonna move and the reality is retailers have to move merchandise out of the store,” said Carol Pregill, Retail Merchants of Hawaii.
And it seems that Black Friday is going to go beyond traditional retail items.
"Automobiles are having a Black Friday sale, restaurants are having a Black Friday sale, so if one thing the retail Black Friday is no longer retail,” she said.
Pregill says the holiday season accounts for 25 to 40 percent of a retailer's annual sales.
Store owners are counting on selling most of their goods to make room for new shipments.
"It's just this very very careful balancing act how does the holiday go? What are the margins at the end of the year and how am I gonna take this ten times increase,” said Pregill.
So she says, shoppers get your pocketbooks ready.
Expect the biggest discounts on electronics and toys and items that don't normally go on sale will likely be marked down.
"Cosmetics, fragrances, even some jewelry items you don't see the markdowns but there are gonna be incentives for people to come to the stores to shop,” she said.
Pregill says retailers are also more optimistic compared to last year.
They feel that they've struggled through the worst of the recession, and shoppers might just share some of that optimism.
"Now we've lived through about a year of it so maybe we're just tired of it and we'll go out and splurge,” she said.
