Biggest Deal for Retailers? Being First to Open Doors

Summary

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Target is opening at 4 a.m., so Kohl's is opening at 3 a.m. Walmart is opening at midnight, so Toys "R" Us is opening at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. It's the annual race of the retailers to beat the competition to the starting line on Black Friday, and they do it because they believe the early bird will get the lion's share of the shopper's dollars.

"The first store a person shops at is usually where they spend the most money," said Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation. "If you can bring somebody into a store before they visit any of your competitors, you've got an upper hand. That's why it's a big deal if you're opening at 5 a.m. and your competitor is opening at 6 a.m. or 4 a.m. These early hours can be a huge competitive advantage."

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Extract

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Biggest Deal for Retailers? Being First to Open Doors

"Everybody's trying to get a jump on somebody else," said retail expert C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, which conducts weekly surveys of shoppers. "The trouble is once they get a jump, everybod...

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