Many in the Kaua‘i community braved heavy foot traffic at department stores island-wide in hopes of getting ahead with their Holiday shopping this past weekend. Many island stores were the beneficiary of the traffic as they set sales records. Many
Many in the Kaua‘i community braved heavy foot traffic at department stores island-wide in hopes of getting ahead with their Holiday shopping this past weekend.
Many island stores were the beneficiary of the traffic as they set sales records. Many other businesses expect a booming and productive holiday shopping season.
Nationwide, Wal-Mart set store records on Nov. 28 with combined sales of $1.52 billion, easily surpassing last year’s mark during that time.
The Kaua‘i Wal-Mart contributed to the weekend record.
“It was extremely busy,” said Kaua‘i Wal-Mart store manager Janie Whitehead. “We definitely had more people in here than last year and they were in here to buy.”
Whitehead said that electronics, such as televisions and stereos, and toys were the hottest items over the weekend.
Other locations also had strong showings over Thanksgiving weekend.
“We had very strong foot traffic,” said Kukui Grove Center Marketing Director Mary Daubert. “A lot of stores exceeded their own expectations.”
KB Toys was particularly busy over the weekend as parents attempted to get a head start on their children’s Christmas lists.
Some of the hot items that were sold for the kids were the Bratz Dolls which have been available for almost a year.
An associate at KB Toys at the Kukui Grove Center added that Barbie dolls are still popular with girls and could be key items this season.
For boys, the Beyblade tops could be a hot toy along with games like Yu-Gi-Oh!.
The Associate also mentioned videogames for both boys and girls of all ages.
The KB Toys associate said that systems and games from Nintendo Gamecube along with the Playstation 2 and the Xbox should be hot sellers this Christmas.
“Typically, the start and end of the (Christmas) season is the busiest for us,” said the KB Toys associate. “When school is out, we generally have the most customer traffic.”
Daubert added that the influx of new franchises such as Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Coldstone Creamery along with new local establishments such as the Underwater Girl clothing store and Morning Glory could help increase customer traffic at the Center.
Starbucks and Jamba Juice will not open until the middle of December said an official at the Center.
With the new Home Depot store seeing large amounts of customer traffic in the first few months of its existence, HD store assistant manager Mark Antony believes that businesses at the Center could reap the benefits.
He also was impressed with Thanksgiving weekend sales.
“Despite us missing a full day (Thanskgiving), we still equaled a week’s worth of sales in six days,” said Antony. “It was pretty good for us. It wasn’t as crazy as out grand opening but we had a lot of people in here.”
Antony and store manager Leonard Peters figured on having a busy Thanksgiving weekend so they had all available associates and managers on staff for the time period.
“We had several Friday (All-sales day) promotions and everything that was on those promotions was sold out by 2 p.m.,” Antony said. “We have sold a lot of lighting, Christmas decorations, trees and gift cards as well as power tools.”
Antony cited the aforementioned things as some of the top items available for the season.
“The week before Christmas is typically the time when we get hit the hardest,” said Antony. “Right now, we get a lot of gift shoppers in here.”
