Black Friday to start earlier

Washingtonians may want some coffee with their pumpkin pie this year, especially if they plan to shop the next day.

Many shopping centers in the Washington area are opening earlier than ever on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start to the holiday shopping season.

Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets will lead the pack with a midnight opening.

Retailers are touting sales such as 30 percent off entire purchases at Kenneth Cole from midnight until 4 a.m., 40 percent off cookwear at Williams-Sonoma Outlet until 6 a.m., and 20 percent off at Nike Factory Stores until 11 a.m. Some stores will wait until 7 a.m. to open. More information is available at https://www.premiumoutlets.com/salespdf/Leesburg.pdf.

“The people that will come out will be adventurous and have patience, a good sense of humor and want to have fun with it,” said Michele Rothstein, a spokeswoman for Leesburg’s owner, Chelsea Property Group Inc. in Roseland, N.J. “This is power shopping. They do their homework, do their research and plan ahead and benefit from it.”

Chelsea opened seven of its centers at midnight last year and will do the same with nearly all its centers this year.

The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in Arlington is opening at 5 a.m. Friday — its earliest Black Friday opening. Most stores will open at 5, but some shop owners will get an extra hour of sleep and open at 6 a.m.

“In recent years, consumers have grown increasingly eager to start earlier on their post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping sojourn,” said J. Scott Mumphrey, president of the Fashion Centre’s owner, Simon Management Group.

The Mall at Prince Georges in Hyattsville will open at 6 a.m. — two hours earlier than it has opened on Black Fridays past. The first 1,000 shoppers will get goody bags, and shoppers will be eligible to enter a drawing with prizes such as an IPod Nano, an ITunes gift card and a $500-per-month shopping spree that is good for one year.

The mall’s owner, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, is opening all its centers early this year.

The Mall in Columbia also will join the 6 a.m. club for the first time this year.

Other shopping centers will hold off opening until later in the day. Lakeforest Mall, Landmark Mall, Westfield Wheaton and Westfield Montgomery will open at 7 a.m. Fair Oaks Mall, White Flint, Springfield Mall and Tysons Corner Center will open at 8 a.m.

In other news …

• Washington-area restaurants haven’t yet picked up on a political promotion at Sticky Fingers, a barbecue restaurant chain in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Customers can bring in an old campaign yard sign and get a free appetizer. The owners say it’s a good way to clean up the neighborhood — literally and, possibly, metaphorically.

• The owner of jeans store Denim Bar in Arlington’s Pentagon Row has opened a second location, at 4939 Cordell Ave. in Bethesda. Owner Mauro Farinelli is a former “denim specialist” at Saks Fifth Avenues.

• Nearly 60 percent of business for the Greater Hartford (Conn.) Convention & Visitors Bureau comes from the vast number of associations in the Washington area. So it made sense for the group to open an office here. The association recently opened a satellite office on 13th Street Northwest.

• Retail & Hospitality runs Mondays. Contact Jen Haberkorn at 202/636-4836 or jhaberkorn@washingtontimes.com.