It’s not just early-bird specials that will be hard to get this holiday season.
In the weeks leading up to today, stores have been promising eye-popping Black Friday discounts, such as a 50-inch flat-screen TV for $598 at Wal-Mart.
That’s no surprise. Stores have long been advertising blockbuster deals that are in relatively short supply. They just “get you in the door to buy a lot of other things,” said Randy Allen, a business professor at Cornell University’s Johnson School.
This year, though, procrastinators won’t be seeing as many last-minute markdowns in the final days before Christmas, either.
That’s because retailers — who in the middle of the Wall Street crisis a year ago were forced to burn off excess inventory by discounting heavily — have been careful to keep inventories lean this year.
In addition, big chains like Kmart and Home Depot have been staging pre-Black Friday events in an effort to get the spending ball rolling.
“Halloween is the new Thanksgiving, and pretty soon I’m afraid it’s going to be Fourth of July,” said Eric Karson, a marketing professor at the Villanova School of Business. “They’re doing everything they can to make sure they don’t have to give stuff away during the last week.”
Less cautious players include Toys “R” Us, which last month opened 350 “pop-up” stores to grab holiday business.
While those stores are going after customers left by now-defunct competitor KB Toys, whose brand it acquired earlier this year, Toys “R” Us is also gunning for Wal-Mart and Target.
“Our inventory is actually up this year, and we’re not worried,” CEO Jerry Storch told The Post. “We’re pleased with the momentum, and we keep hearing from vendors that we’re gaining market share.”
On the Web, analysts say eBay and Amazon.com are also likely to pick up more sales as wallet-conscious shoppers search for bargains online.