BLACK FRIDAY

WEB SITES

MINNEAPOLIS -- Call it a pre-emptive strike.

Retailers once called in the lawyers when Black Friday ads got leaked prior to that day-after Thanksgiving shopping bonanza. This year, many aren't bothering.

Instead, they're releasing the ads themselves.

A dozen or more major retail chains made all or parts of their ads available Monday on Facebook pages, Web sites and through e-mails to their best customers, hoping to drum up some deal-busting excitement for consumers who still feel the tug of the recession.

"It's sort of like, 'If you can't lick them, join them,' " said Akshay Rao, marketing professor at the University of Minnesota.

Best Buy, Macy's, Toys "R" Us, JCPenney, Sears, Wal-Mart and Walgreens were among those rolling out their Black Friday promotions early. Black Friday is a marketing term retailers use to signal the start of the holiday season that often turns retailers' fortunes around, putting them "into the black."

Toys "R" Us put prices on 120 items for fans of its Facebook page including Leapster learning game system for $29.99 (normally $59.99); Furreal S'mores Pony $99 (normally $250); Lego Indiana Jones set $42.59 (normally $70).

At Kohls.com shoppers can browse through 300 early-bird specials and add gifts to a printable wish list to bring into the store. At Macys.com, consumers can share sale items on Facebook and Twitter.

For years, deep-pocket retailers battled Black Friday Web sites that shared leaked advertisements with impatient consumers. Best Buy and Target Corp. were among the many retailers that routinely sent out cease-and-desist orders.

Last year, Michael Brim, founder and Webmaster of BFads.net, said he got such letters from half a dozen retailers, including Wal-Mart, Sears and Macy's. This year, he heard only from Wal-Mart and Office Max.

Some stores, including Menards, Lowe's, Ace Hardware and Northern Tool Equipment joined hands with BFads.net, sending their finalized ads to the Web site.

"Some of the smaller stores and regional chains now want to use us as a promotional source," said Brim, who will graduate this spring from California Polytechnic State University. "Whereas in previous years, it was butting heads to get agreement."

Indeed, there was little response a few weeks ago when Gottadeal.com revealed that Target's Black Friday ads promoted $3 Chefmate kitchen appliances, including toasters, slow cookers and coffee makers. Two years ago, Target Corp. said it considered the leaked ads a "serious infringement of intellectual property rights."

The Black Friday sites often scan store circulars, resulting in ads that are unsightly at best or hard-to-read at worst. Sometimes the ads are early versions that contain typos or prices that later change.

"The retailers probably assume, 'Well, it's going to leak anyway so we might as well take advantage of it directly and then kind of control the conversation,'" said Mike Allen, founder of Shopping-Bargains.com.

With retailers competing for every dollar they can grab, no one wants to get caught flat-footed by being late on a promotion.

"Typically, all would hold off, but if one of them defects, all consumers go and wait outside that store's doors at 6 a.m.," Rao said. "From a game-theory standpoint, everybody says, 'What the heck. Let's just provide the information right now.' The sale will kick in the day after Thanksgiving because of the tradition associated with that, but we'll inform everybody now about the terms of the sale."

Many retailers on Monday went beyond Black Friday and touted Thanksgiving Day specials that will last through Nov. 30, also known as Cyber Monday.

Others started weeks ago. Wal-Mart announced its 100 toys under $10 program on Sept. 30. Sears began running "Black Friday now" ads on Oct. 28, promoting half-off Craftsman tool sets (saving $200) and diamond stud earrings for $79.99 (normally $259.99).

Said Barry Boone, CEO of currentcodes.com: "A lot of the stores because they're really scrambling to get those holiday sales, they're sort of jumping the gun on their competitors to get some of these sales out there on the early side and try to get what they can ahead of the curve."