Island shoppers flock to the
stores to get an early start on their
gift lists and take advantage
of special prices

One of the big disappointments
on the Mainland was echoed a little
in Hawaii: Too few Furbys

By Russ Lynch and Jerry Tune
Star-Bulletin

Isle retailers kicked off their busiest shopping season of the year today, with early-bird shoppers flocking to stores to grab discounted merchandise in the traditional sales the day after Thanksgiving.

At the Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby Shop in Ala Moana Center, shoppers were there hours ahead of the 6 a.m. opening. At a Pearl City store, they started lining up last night.

The attraction was Furby, a Gremlin-like doll that speaks its own language and eventually English.

Those in line early enough got a certificate entitling them to buy one of the limited-supply critters at about $35 a pop. Two hours after the store opened, the line was for a different purpose. Dozens of shoppers waited, clutching plastic bags of merchandise, to get to the cashiers to pay for their goods.

By mid-morning the Furbys were sold out.

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Hundreds of shoppers were on hand for the opening
of Kay-Bee Toys in Ala Moana Center today.

Kay-Bee shoppers started lining up at 10 p.m. yesterday at Pearlridge Center, at 1:30 a.m. today in the Kahala Mall and at 3:30 a.m. at Windward Mall.

"Kay-Bee had 100 people in line at 10 p.m. and some slept over, so at 4 a.m. there were 300 people in line," said Deborah Sharkey, public relations representative for Pearlridge Center. "It was their busiest time ever."

Pearlridge also had early lines at its Disney store. About 60 people waited at 5:45 a.m. and about 500 by 8 a.m. The center's Toys-R-Us store had 100 people in line at 4 a.m., Sharkey said.

At the Disney Store in Ala Moana it was another popular character that had lines forming early. Word had gotten around that the store would have a limited supply of its special Holiday Mini Bean Bag, a plush, cuddly toy character called Snow Flake Pooh.

Ron Ohashi of Salt Lake was about number 160 in a line of about 400 shortly before the store's 8 a.m. opening.

Photos by Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
It's been a rough year for Hawaii retailers. Neiman Marcus,
a newcomer to the islands, dressed up its new Ala Moana
location with a cascade of 35,000 feather butterflies
for its first Christmas here.

"I was sent by my wife. We were here about 6:15," said Ohashi, standing in line with son Travis, 10, and daughter Tracilynn, 8.

They were happily clutching red tickets entitling them to one Snow Flake Pooh each. Disney said the Ala Moana store was an exception because it had a supply of 600. Most stores across the country got 200 each and quickly sold out, said Denise Vistola, a spokeswoman at Disney headquarters.

It wasn't fads but low prices that attracted customers to a lot of stores.

The Wal-Mart store in Mililani, rife with heavy discounts, was packed from midnight through 5 a.m. today in its second year of midnight opening right after Thanksgiving.

"We were absolutely slammed wall-to-wall," said Blaine Theriault, co-manager. "We had a reprieve between 5 and 6," he said, but the crowds came right back.

"Right now there are about 60 people at one check-out," Theriault said as he surveyed the rush of buyers shortly after 6 a.m.

At the Kmart store in Iwilei, manager Ryan Budisalich couldn't count the number of people waiting outside for the 6 a.m. opening.

"We had them all the way out the front of the building," he said, guessing there were "in excess of 200."

Like last year, the crowd quickly converged around the jewelry counter, where jewelry is 70 percent off, including the popular Hawaiian-language bracelets.

Fast sellers at Kmart were an electric rice cooker for $69.99, with a free 20-pound bag of rice, and an $89.99, 13-inch color television.

Computers, games and all things electronic are expected to be big sellers this season, and the CompUSA store at South Street and Ala Moana had a line outside half an hour before its 8 a.m. opening.

In Hawaii, as elsewhere, it's a tradition to open early on this first day of the season. Wal-Mart found the midnight opening worked well last year so it opened both stores -- Waipahu and Mililani -- at that time again this year.

Several major stores at Ala Moana -- Sears, J.C. Penney and Liberty House -- opened at 7 a.m. with lots of discounted prices.

Some stores opened an hour earlier.

They included Toys-R-Us -- which is running a one-day sale today until midnight and a five-hour sale tomorrow, also starting at 6 a.m. -- and Kmart.

Thinker Toys, which sells educational toys, opened its Kahala Mall store at 6 a.m. and reported crowds even though there were no special prices.

At Victoria Ward Centers, the new Pier One store opened at 8 a.m. instead of the 9:30 a.m. starting time for the center.

Windward Mall reported a crowd of about 500 in the parking lot at 3:41 a.m. and about 2,000 people by 6 a.m., said Sandi Oguma, the mall's marketing director.

The day after Thanksgiving is not the biggest dollar-volume shopping day of the year.

Last year it ranked seventh, according to the National Council of Shopping Centers with the biggest day being Dec. 20.

But in Hawaii, as in the rest of the country, it is the kick-off for the season in which retailers gross a quarter or more of their year's revenues.