Kohl’s announced this week it anticipates hiring more than 52,700 associates nationwide this holiday season, up more than 10 percent from last year to support holiday business in stores and growth in e-commerce in 2012.

That’s 41 associates per store, an increase of four percent over 2011, to provide shoppers with customer service throughout the holiday season at its 1,146 stores nationwide, according to a press release from the company.

The company also “anticipates” hiring approximately 5,700 seasonal positions at distribution centers and more than 30 seasonal credit operations positions, the press release also states.

The Roanoke Kohl’s location opened last September.

“…commitment to deliver on our customer promise to expect great things is especially important during the holiday season, and we are pleased to be hiring more than 52,700 associates across the country to help our customers and support our stores during this busy time,” ” said John Worthington, Kohl’s chief administrative officer.

Seasonal associates can work anywhere from a few hours to more than 20 hours per week. Typical store jobs include unloading trucks, freight processing, stocking and cash register duties, the release states.

Hiring began this month, and most jobs will be filled by mid-November.

Holiday positions are also being filled at the company’s distribution centers, where hiring began in August. Associates working at distribution centers ensure Kohl’s products get to the retail stores and into the hands of Kohls.com customers. Associates working in Kohl’s credit operations perform a variety of jobs including assisting customers with Kohls.com orders.

Hiring levels at specific locations will vary depending on the business needs of each facility. For information about employment opportunities with Kohl’s: www.KohlsCareers.com.

If you still have some holiday shopping to do, keep in mind that on Friday you’ll be able to get free shipping (with delivery by Christmas) from nearly 2,000 retailers as part of Free Shipping Day.

Free Shipping Day came about four years ago. It is estimated that last year shoppers spent nearly $1 billion on Free Shipping Day, more than what was spent online on Black Friday 2010.

You’ll find a variety of retails participating, including several that we don’t have access to here in Southwest Virginia, such World Market, Cabela’s, Designer Warehouse Shoes and Sephora. For a full list of participating retailers, click here.

The details of each retailer’s free shipping offer won’t be revealed until Friday, but beware that in the past they’ve included minimum purchase amounts and other restrictions.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for online on Friday, some retailers have extended their deadlines giving you until Dec. 20 to place your orders for a Christmas delivery, according to the National Retail Federation.

And if you’re a big-time procrastinator, about 22 percent of online retailers will offer two-day shipping through Dec. 22, while 30 percent will offer overnight shipping through Dec. 23, according to the NRF.

Shades of Color store owner Pauline Wood used the free time to sweep off the sidewalk in front of her store.

Blue Ribbon Boutique store owner Vicki Harwell used her free time to make a phone call.

Thursday night was the start of extended holiday shopping hours for downtown Roanoke retailers.

Shoppers were scarce.

“It needs a little bit of publicity,” said Vicki Taylor, one of the owners of the Gift Niche.

On Thursdays this month, many downtown stores including Taylor’s will be open until 9 p.m. Parking is free in the city’s Market, Tower and Center in the Square garages. City manager Chris Morrill made the announcement about the extended hour at last week’s news conference about Dickens of a Christmas. He encouraged folks to have dinner downtown and then do some holiday shopping.

“We were really hoping that the people that want to shop would have ample time to browse,” Taylor said of the extended hours.  She said she’d made a few sales Thursday night, but not as many as she’d like.

It was the same sentiment next door at Blue Ribbon Boutique.

“It’s been slow tonight,” Harwell said. “Time is valuable this time of year, but I’m willing to be here because it is also the time of year you’re likely to sell.”

Outside, Wood was using a broom to sweep leaves off the sidewalk. She said she liked the idea of being open later, but she believes having the extended hours on Saturday nights makes more sense.

The stores are bracing for crowds tonight as Dickens of a Christmas kicks off with the 6:15 tree lighting.

Are you more likely to shop late after work on a Thursday, or would extended hours on Saturday be better?

Happy Monday.

How did you make out this Black Friday weekend with your holiday shopping? Are you turning to the Internet to shop today?

On this Cyber Monday, I bring you these tips from the Better Business Bureau Serving Western Virginia.

Top Ten Cyber Monday Tips for Staying Safe When Shopping Online

The most popular day to shop online is fast approaching…be prepared.

November 23, 2011 – Roanoke, VA – Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, has officially replaced Black Friday as the most popular day to shop for the holidays. Shopping online means avoiding the crowds, but it also opens up the buyer to attacks from scammers and hackers.

Every year, more people head online rather than to the mall to get their holiday shopping done. According to a preliminary shopping survey, conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, up to 152 million people plan to shop Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), higher than the 138 million people who planned to do so last year. According to the survey, 74 million people say they will definitely hit the stores and another 77 million are waiting to see if the bargains are worth braving the cold and the crowds.

“The convenience and ease of shopping online is great, but online shopping has its own set of risks”, said Julie Wheeler, President & CEO of the BBB Serving Western Virginia.  “Taking steps to avoid the fraud online will result in a much happier holiday for everyone—except, of course, for scammers and hackers.”
BBB recommends the following top 10 tips for shopping online this holiday season to help fight unscrupulous online retailers, scammers and hackers:

1. Protect your computer – A computer should always have the most recent updates installed for spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a secure firewall.

2. Shop on trustworthy websites – Shoppers should start at www.bbb.org to check on the seller’s reputation and record for customer satisfaction. It’s a good idea to look for the BBB logo and other widely-recognized seals on retailer websites, but make sure they are real (some rogue sites plagiarize seals to look legitimate).

3. Protect your personal information – BBB recommends taking the time to read the site’s privacy policy and understand what personal information is being requested and how it will be used. If there isn’t one posted, take that as a red flag that personal information may be sold to others without permission.

4. Beware of deals that sound too good to be true – Offers on websites and in unsolicited e-mails can often sound too good to be true, especially extremely low prices on hard-to-get items. Consumers should always go with their instincts and not be afraid to pass up a “deal” that might cost them dearly in the end.

5. Beware of phishing – Legitimate businesses do not send e-mails claiming problems with an order or an account to lure the “buyer” into revealing financial information. If a consumer receives such an e-mail, BBB recommends picking up the phone and calling the contact number on the website where the purchase was made to confirm that there really is a problem with the transaction.

6. Confirm your online purchase is secure – Shoppers should always look in the address box for the “s” in https:// and in the lower-right corner for the “lock” symbol before paying. If there are any doubts about a site, BBB recommends right-clicking anywhere on the page and select “Properties.” This will let you see the real URL (website address) and the dialog box will reveal if the site is not encrypted.

7. Pay with a credit card – It’s best to use a credit card, because under federal law, you can dispute the charges if you don’t receive the item. Your also have dispute rights if there are unauthorized charges on your credit card, and many card issuers have “zero liability” policies under which the card holder pays nothing if someone steals the credit card number and uses it. If you are going to shop on classifieds web sites like Craigslist, never wire money and only buy locally where you can see the item before you hand over your money.

8. Keep documentation of your order – After completing the online order process, there may be a final confirmation page or the shopper might receive confirmation by e-mail – BBB recommends saving a copy of the web page and any e-mails for future reference and as a record of the purchase.

9. Check your credit card statements often – Don’t wait for paper statements; BBB recommends consumers check their credit card statements for suspicious activity by either calling credit card companies or by looking at statements online regularly.

10. Know your rights – Federal law requires that orders made by mail, phone or online be shipped by the date promised or, if no delivery time was stated, within 30 days. If the goods aren’t shipped on time, the shopper can cancel and demand a refund. There is no general three-day cancellation right, but consumers do have the right to reject merchandise if it’s defective or was misrepresented. Otherwise, it’s the company’s policies that determine if the shopper can cancel the purchase and receive a refund or credit.

For more advice on staying safe online this holiday season, and to see reports on thousands of online retailers, go to www.bbb.org/us/consumer-tips-holiday/.

If you need more information, contact the BBB at (540) 342-3455 or (800) 533-5501. You can also visit www.bbb.org.  Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/BBB_WesternVA.

The scene at Target on Black Friday 2010. File photo by Kyle Green

It’s almost Thanksgiving Day, which this year is also the start of Black Friday.

I hope that if you’re planning to do some shopping Thursday you first relax with your loved ones and, of course, feast on some great food and think about what you have to be grateful for.

I would like to thank you for reading The Storefront, and for sharing your thoughts and opinions about the topics presented here.

If shopping is in your plans on Thursday, you’ll likely be lining up at Toys R Us, which opens at 9 p.m., and Walmart, which opens at 10 p.m. Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy and others at midnight. We’ll have a more complete list of store hours  in Thursday’s newspaper. Also, Shoptimist Rebecca Holland has Black Friday shopping tips on her blog today.

I’ll be positioned at Toys R Us when it opens on Thursday to begin our Black Friday coverage. You can check back here Thursday night and early Friday morning for updates, or follow me on Twitter: @amandacodispoti.

If you’re planning to do some shopping on Thursday or Friday please send us your updates, too! I’m interested to know how this year compares to previous years because of the earlier-than-ever openings. Did it change the way you plan your shopping?

Shop differently.

That’s the message behind the local shopping campaign that Downtown Roanoke Inc. and the City of Roanoke announced this morning at a new conference.

The “Shop Differently” campaign encourages local shopping because it is good for the local economy and, well, it is different.

You get a different shopping experience, a different product, and a different brand when you shop locally, said Sean Luther, president of DRI.

To encourage shoppers to go downtown, many merchants will extend their Thursday hours until 9 p.m. (You can find a complete list of participating merchants here). The city is offering free parking on Thursdays after 4 p.m. at the Towers, Market and Center in the Square garages. Parking at all city lots and garages is free on Black Friday.

DRI also announced new events for this year’s Dickens of a Christmas. You can read more about those details (including manmade snow!) here.

I’m sure that like me, many of you have a family member of friend whose gift requires a lot of thinking.

That’s what makes gift giving fun, but it’s also challenging. What do you give the person who seems to have everything and asks for nothing?

When I moved to Virginia from Ohio shopping for gifts became much easier.

That’s because I realized I could introduce my father to Virginia wines, buy locally crafted jewelry for my mother and wrap up a Texas Tavern T-shirt for my brother. Another favorite is locally made jams and apple butter for stocking stuffers.

Every holiday season (and in between), I go back to our locally owned shops to see what piece of Roanoke I can wrap up and take home.

Buying from our locally owned stores has several benefits. In the context of gift giving, you’re giving your loved ones something they can’t get anywhere else. It’s also great because it supports our local retailers.

Retailers in downtown Roanoke, downtown Salem and in Floyd are benefiting from events to drive consumers to their stores.

In Roanoke, Dickens of a Christmas begins Dec. 2 with the city’s tree lighting. (Let’s not forget that there are plenty of locally owned stores outside of downtown Roanoke and in Roanoke County).

You might have read that Salem recently announced its downtown shops would extend their Friday hours until 9 p.m. for the holiday season. (So Salem has photos of the first “Salem Till 9″ event).

And in Floyd, an alternative private school is partnering with the town’s shops to encourage consumers to shop locally.The shops, in turn, have made a donation to Blue Mountain School. And consumers not only have the satisfaction of supporting their local economy, but they also have an opportunity to win prizes.You can find more information about the school’s fundraiser, including a list of participating stores, here.

And of course, Small Business Saturday, the day after Black Friday, promotes shopping locally.

What is on your shopping list this holiday season, and which local stores will you visit for those items? What locally sourced gifts have you given or do you plan to give? Maybe we can all swap some ideas!

Wikimedia Commons photo | BlairSnow

For the past few weeks my inbox has been filling up with Black Friday emails. I figured we could at least wait until after Halloween to start talking about holiday shopping.

So here we go!

The National Retail Federation is projecting this year’s holiday spending to be a bit lackluster compared to last year. That might be what is driving retailers to seek competitive advantages, such as opening their doors even earlier on Black Friday.

How early? I’m talking about midnight.

Retailers that have typically stuck to the pre-dawn hours of 4 or 5 a.m. have announced that they’ll unlock their doors at midnight. Among them: Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s.

Kohl’s said in a news release that they’ll be open Nov. 25  for 24 hours, from 12 a.m. Friday to 12 a.m. Saturday.

Target will be open for 23 hours, from midnight to 11 p.m. They’ll also have extended store hours on Christmas Eve (7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and the day after Christmas (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.).

Several other retailers, such as Best Buy, haven’t yet announced their Black Friday hours, but I’ll let you know when they do.

How early are you willing to line up for Black Friday deals? Would you rather stay up after your turkey dinner or go to sleep and get up early?

Chances are high you probably received a gift this Christmas that you really did not want. And you likely returned it. Each year, most people usually find an ugly sweater or a not-so-fun trinket under the Christmas tree that is not quite right for them.

Well, Amazon wants to help ensure that you no longer receive unwanted holiday gifts. The online retailer has applied for a patent that would allow consumers to return unwanted gifts before they even receive them and help people keep a list of perceived lousy gift givers, according to this story. The system would actually vet packages from such givers before the gifts are sent. Consumers also could set special gift rules, such as “no clothes with wool.”

This system has not yet been introduced, but it raises questions about gift giving etiquette and the story points oujt those concerns.

Then again, it could be a tremendous cost saver for Amazon. This system likely could reduce millions of dollars in returned gifts and related processing each year, according to the story.

Merry Christmas to all of you! Thanks so much for reading and posting your thoughts here at the Storefront blog throughout the past year.

I hope you all have an enjoyable and merry holiday weekend.