Target, Best Buy to offer early holiday sales

Global supply chain problems forcing Santa — and parents — to get head start

As supply chain worries have consumers shopping earlier for the holidays, retailers including Best Buy are planning early sales like last year.

Many retail analysts are predicting that popular items might sell out by next month because of supply chain bottlenecks that have national retailers like Target chartering their own cargo ships and finding other creative solutions.

“We’ve been navigating this for almost 20 months,” Best Buy Chief Executive Officer Corie Barry said in an interview on the “Today” show last week. “Consumer electronics was one of the first categories to really pop. … And so our teams have really been working hard with our vendor partners through this whole time to bring in product. What that means is we have been planning way ahead of time for the holiday.”

Best Buy’s first holiday promotions began Monday. The electronics retailer also said the traditional larger Black Friday sale will begin Nov. 19 instead of the day after Thanksgiving.

Kohl’s said Friday it will start its holiday sales Wednesday.

The big retailers will spread the holiday sales over the next few months, which is in line with last year’s early rollout of sales by many national retailers. Last week, Target’s Deal Days kicked off the early holiday season with sales on headphones, TVs, clothes and more.

The Minneapolis- based retailer also announced this week one of its holiday promotions available beginning early December: a limitededition design partnership with Lego Group that features brightly colored clothing, home goods products and more.

While early shopping isn’t uncommon, this year hitting the stores or online markets sooner rather than later is more crucial because of global supply chain problems that have caused delays in sending goods and raised concerns about keeping shelves stocked.

Target is one of several major retailers that have begun to move their shipping containers off cargo ships at night to try to help alleviate congestion at the country’s busiest ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.

Other retailers such as Walmart and the Home Depot have also committed to move cargo during night hours as the industry prepares for the busy holiday shopping season.