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The weekend starts today. Below are two shopping events happening locally.

--Some retailers at the Grandin Village in Roanoke are springing for a holiday open house today. From 6 to 9 p.m., Village Flowers, New to Me, Too Many Books and Vida Bela will be open longer and each is offering special sales.

--If you’re an elementary or high school teacher, you can save 20 percent on books and gifts and 10 percent on DVDs and CDs for three hours on Saturday. Barnes & Noble at Valley View Mall is hosting an educator discount event from 9 a.m. to noon. It’s for those who teach Pre-K through 12th grades. And you have to present your educator discount card to be eligible for the savings.

Happy shopping and saving!

Are gift cards on your wish list this year? You’ve probably noticed more creative marketing for these cards lately.

It’s because gift card sales continue to rise. From 2005 to 2006, the amount of money spent on gift cards during the holidays jumped about 255 percent, from $18.48 billion in 2005 to $24.81 billion in 2006, according to the National Retail Federation. Also, the average amount spent per gift card was about $39 in 2006, an increase from $33 in 2005.

Some people don’t think gift cards are personal. Think again. This year some retailers are offering new ways to personalize these plastic cards.

At Borders, customers can add photos and personal messages to its cards. The cost is an additional $4.95.

Read more »

Roanoke’s largest retailer just hired a Best Buy executive to take the reigns.
Darren Jackson has been named the new chief executive officer and president of Advance Auto Parts, according to the company. He is executive vice president of customer operating groups at Best Buy, an electronics retailer based in Minnesota

Jackson has been a member of Advance’s board of directors since 2004, so he’s familiar with the automotive parts retailer. In the last year, Advance has had slow growth in sales at its stores, and several months ago, it laid off at least 250 employees.

Jackson takes the helm from interim CEO and president, John Brouilliard. The former CEO and president, Mike Coppola, left Advance in May.

I’ll hopefully catch up with Jackson today and find out more details about how his Best Buy experience will cross over into his work at Advance.

The Internet may not be the first place that you turn when deciding where to have dinner. But more regional restaurants have joined OpenTable, a reservations Web site. Used more heavily by high-end eateries in larger cities, OpenTable slowing is attracting some Southwest Virginia eateries.

202 Market in downtown Roanoke joined the site when the eatery opened in April. And last year, Metro, another downtown restaurant, was the first to register at OpenTable.

Other Southwest Virginia restaurants on OpenTable are Chateau Morrisette in Floyd and three Lynchburg eateries-- Shoemaker’s Fine Dining, Meriwether’s Market Restaurant and The Neighbors Place.

To make reservations, patrons log on, click the desired restaurant and enter the time and name. There is no fee to make reservations online.

Restaurants do pay for the OpenTable listing. Metro paid a $900 start-up fee and a $300 to $350 a month charge, said Andy Schlosser, the chef and owner, when the eatery joined the online service last year. Also, restaurants pay $1 for each reservation made.

Read more »

My story in today’s newspaper gives more detail about John Norman Clothiers' closing in late December.

The 75-year-old men's and women’s apparel store joins at least two other Roanoke Valley retailers that are planning large closing sales through the holidays.

John Norman’s store-wide sale will begin on Thursday. Other retailers with closing sales are the Orvis outlet in Salem and Bombay Co. at Valley View Mall in Roanoke.

Retailers are expecting that these discounts will draw more shoppers during the holidays than at any other time of the year. Holding sales during this important season for retail helps stores move out inventory quicker as they near closing time.

A mainstay in Roanoke’s retail clothing market will shut its doors next month.

John Norman Clothiers is closing on Dec. 24, according to owner Jeff Wendell. This men and women’s upscale clothing boutique opened its first shop in downtown Roanoke in 1932, selling only men’s apparel.

Wendell has owned the retailer for the last 34 years. It has had locations at Tanglewood Mall and at the Corners Shopping Center in Roanoke County.

Last year, Wendell moved the store to a new and visible spot at West Village in Roanoke County. He even bought its two-story building, beside Finks Jewelers, that also houses the Daily Grind.

It’s unclear why Wendell is closing John Norman in the midst of the holiday shopping season. A closing sale soon will start at the store, and all clothing, furniture and antiques will be discounted, according to a news release.

I’ll post more details once I find them out.

Photo by Roanoke Times photographer Sam Dean.

How many times while shopping have you tried to find a certain item, but you didn’t know where it was?

In time for the holiday season, Roanoke's Valley View Mall now is offering shoppers the chance to search for a particular item by using their cell phones. By texting “VLV” to 632729 (nearby), you can receive instructions via cell phone of how to search for specific items and sales information at the mall stores.

This new service, also available at River Ridge Mall in Lynchburg, is offered by NearbyNow, a company that provides Internet and mobile search technology.

Valley View has an extensive product search function on its Web site, but mobile searching gives you the opportunity to find items while you’re out and about and not near a computer.

This move is in line with efforts by other retailers lately to communicate with customers via mobile phones. J.C. Penney gave customers who signed up a wake-up call on Black Friday. Nordstrom and Wal-Mart are sending off text messages about sales and other discounts.
Some of these services are holiday exclusive.

I haven’t signed up for these mobile offerings, but I plan to test some of them out. If you’ve tried them, let me know what you think.

It’s back to the daily grind after last week's turkey, early morning shopping and traveling.

Today is the day that online retailers may receive an early Christmas present. Retail experts market the Monday after Thanksgiving as Cyber Monday, a 24-hour period that is one of the busiest for holiday-related online sales.

I received some statistics about online shopping today in my inbox from Yahoo! Shopping.

Here’s some of the info:

• Compared to the holiday shopping season of 2006, page view traffic is up 37% for the 2007 Holiday season (to date)

• Top 10 products from the weekend, based on Yahoo’s poll:
1. Transformers Ultimate Bumblebee
2. Nintendo Wii
3. Apple iPhone 8GB
4. Sharp Aquos LC-46D62U
5. Nintendo DS Lite Onyx
6. Kenneth Cole Reaction black wool melton trench coat
7. Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527
8. Apple iPod nano 8GB (3G) - Black
9. Microsoft Zune Brown
10. Xbox 360

Read more »

Today is the holiday season’s official kick-off. Before sunrise today, I talked to shoppers who had lined up as early as midday on Thursday at Best Buy in Roanoke to grab some major door buster deals for Black Friday.

The sales included $399.99 Sony laptop computers, $99.99 Kodak 6 MP digital cameras and $449.99 32-inch LCD televisions.

Bobby and Ashley Menkedick of Roanoke County were among the early morning shoppers waiting for Best Buy’s doors to open at 5 a.m. They planned to buy a $1,800 television that was on sale for $1,200.

Both had not yet slept during the night and instead headed to Best Buy to save their place in line.
To withstand Friday’s chilly temperatures, Ashley Menkendick said “you can prepare, with lots of jackets and hot chocolate.”

After Best Buy, I headed to Valley View Mall. Inside, it looked like a busy Friday or Saturday with people walking briskly through the halls, though it was 6 a.m. and still dark outside.

Two women who browsed the toy section at Sears said they were disappointed that the sales at some mall stores were not as large as in the past. I also asked them if higher gas prices would change their holiday spending this year.

Nikki Burton of Covington said she usually sets a Christmas budget and sticks to it. She's not concerned about gas prices impacting her spending.

“I have a range of how much I want to spend,” she said.

According to the National Retail Federation, up to 132.9 million Americans will shop this weekend.

Check out more photos from the morning here. The malls and other local shopping centers likely will be crowded throughout the day today and much of the weekend.

Don’t forget to let me know about your Black Friday shopping experience.

Have a good weekend!

I’ve been busy most of this week, mapping out my Black Friday coverage course of action.

If you’re planning to shop on Friday, read my story in today’s newspaper about some Roanoke area stores opening earlier on Nov. 23 this year.

Also, some retailers are making Black Friday promotions available on their Web sites starting tomorrow. They include Circuit City and Wal-Mart. It seems that before long, Thanksgiving Day could become a large shopping day as well!

On Friday, I’ll post some news from my Black Friday coverage, so check back here then.
In the meantime, send along your tips for maneuvering the day after Thanksgiving shopping madness.

Happy Thanksgiving!