Target Pushes Aggressive Price Cuts

Target wants to be sure it gets your holiday business this year. The retail giant has seen its profits take a nosedive this year, as shoppers cut back to just the essentials. Nearly half the store's revenue comes from non-essentials, though, like fashion and trendy housewares. To be sure they move items like this over the next month, Target will be offering some serious bargains.

The company says that it will match prices with its chief rival, Wal-Mart, in local markets, and will offer daily rotating value items on its website, while aggressively cutting prices on popular national brands. Though Target has cut prices around the holidays in previous years, Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel says the company is really ramping up its promotions for 2008, and expects to be the price leader on many gift items.

This makes Target very attractive for holiday shoppers this year. I remember doing most of my shopping there last year anyway, and I saved myself 10% extra by opening the Target credit card on the day I shopped for my friends and family. Then I paid it off and closed the account. If you can exercise discipline, there's no reason not to go for the in-store credit card offers, especially if you can take 10 or more percent off a large purchase. With the Target credit card profits dropping sharply recently, I wouldn't be surprised to see the store offer even better incentives to qualified applicants.

You should not forget to check the website for those rotating value items, too.

Black Friday...Starts Early!

Sawgrass Mills to open at midnight on Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, shoppers will be able to finish their eating and then head to Sawgrass Mills. The Sunrise mall will be the first in South Florida to try opening at midnight on Thanksgiving.

Sawgrass Mills is hoping it pays to be the first out of the starting gate during this challenging holiday shopping season.

The Sunrise outlet mall will open its doors at midnight on Thanksgiving evening to beat the Black Friday holiday kickoff that typically starts in the predawn hours on the day after Thanksgiving.

Sawgrass will be the first mall in South Florida to host a Thanksgiving midnight opening, although malls around the country have been experimenting with the concept for the last couple of years.

''The intent is to build an earlier business day and gain that traffic advantage on Black Friday,'' said Luanne Lenberg, general manager at Sawgrass Mills. "We have the product and the price to make it worth their while."

The decision to offer the midnight opening at Sawgrass was based more on the success that other Mills properties have had with the strategy in previous years, rather than the current economic situation, Lenberg said.

Sawgrass is one of 12 Mills properties nationally that will open at midnight.

At Concord Mills in Charlotte, N.C., last year there were crowds approaching 20,000 people waiting outside the mall at 11:15 p.m. for the midnight opening.

Sales for the entire Black Friday were up 20 percent over the previous year. The Victoria's Secret at Concord Mills ranked as the top volume store in the entire chain that day.

Although it's not mandatory that all tenants open at midnight, a ''substantial majority'' have participated at other Mills properties. Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH is one of those that has done it before and plans to participate this year at Sawgrass.

''We have been extremely successful with the midnight openings,'' said Karen Peters, senior vice president of stores for OFF 5TH, which plans to have 34 stores open at midnight this year, up from 21 last year. "We absolutely see a lift in sales."

''It's amazing how many thousands of customers line up at the doors,'' Peters said. ``They get so excited to come in at midnight and get the best deals early on.''

(Article from the Miami Herald)