Midnight openings grow, but not all retail on board

By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mall operators are betting the early bird gets the worm during this year's Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend.

More shopping malls plan to open at midnight on Thanksgiving night, holding events like "Merry Midnight Madness," to kick off the competitive three-day holiday shopping weekend.

In an extreme example, Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas said its 100 designer outlet stores will be open on Thanksgiving Day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

But not everyone is jumping on the open-early bandwagon.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart Stores Inc will open the doors at its discount stores that are not open 24 hours a day at 5 a.m. -- the same as last year.

Circuit City Stores Inc will also open its stores at 5 a.m., the same time as it did a year ago, while Best Buy will still open at 5 a.m. but close at 10 p.m. -- an hour earlier than last year.

"It's a long day by that time. Were we gaining enough by that last hour to justify keeping everybody there another hour?" a Best Buy spokesman said. "This year, we decided to try closing at 10 and let people go home and get some rest."

TRYING TO KICK-START SALES

The holiday season is crucial for retailers because it can account for between 25 percent and 40 percent of their annual sales. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is consider the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Retailers have started opening their doors ever earlier on Thanksgiving weekend and touting eye-popping deals to try to garner sales at the start of the holiday shopping season.

"There's this new level of frenzy associated with it, and it's turned into sport," said Candace Corlett, a principal with consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail.

This year Simon Property Group Inc will hold "Midnight Madness" events at 38 of its Chelsea Premium Outlet Centers, up from 26 a year ago. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers will also host midnight events at 22 of its shopping centers, compared with eight a year ago.

General Growth Properties will open 12 of its malls at midnight this year, up from seven a year ago.

Wally Brewster, senior vice president of marketing and communications for General Growth, said more malls and their stores are opening a midnight because it has been shown to boost sales over the three-day holiday weekend.

"It's a bit of a 'me-too'" phenomenon, said Linda Shea, global managing director of customer strategies at Opinion Research Corp.