Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. are competing for customers with discounts and extended Black Friday hours as cost-conscious shoppers say they plan to spend less on gifts than they did last year.

Kohl’s, the fourth-largest U.S. department-store chain, will open at 4 a.m. on Nov. 27 and offer more than 300 early- bird specials, including $34.99 cashmere sweaters. Toys ‘R’ Us is offering almost 50 percent more of such deals than last year. Walmart is staying open all of tonight so shoppers can grab $3 pajamas and $15 Miley Cyrus jeans when they go on sale at 5 a.m.

Chains are also contending for home-electronics shoppers. Walmart’s Web site is offering home delivery of flat-panel televisions and other electronics for 97 cents. Best Buy Co., the world’s largest electronics chain, is discounting flat-panel TVs, cameras and laptops.

“We have been more aggressive than ever before in our marketing and in our pricing,” Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Storch said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The Wayne, New Jersey-based chain is opening at midnight tonight, five hours earlier than last year, offering 220 doorbusters compared with 150 in 2008, and has distributed a 28- page national Black Friday circular. It promised to have thousands of the Zhu Zhu Pets robot hamsters that sold out in recent months, and will be handing out 64-crayon Crayola boxes as gifts with purchases.

In the Black

The day after U.S. Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, the traditional beginning of holiday buying. Explanations of the phrase’s origins differ, one holding that it’s the weekend when retailers go to being in the black, profitable for the year.

As many as 134 million people plan to shop over the weekend, 4.7 percent more than last year, according to the National Retail Federation, a Washington-based trade group. Yet, spending may fall during the holidays. Shoppers may spend an average of $682.74 on Christmas gifts this year, compared with $705.01 last year, according to a survey by the federation.

With unemployment at 10.2 percent, price is more important to shoppers this year than selection, quality or convenience, according to the NRF.

Walmart cut some toy prices to $5, and Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy is promoting $299.99 32-inch Dynex flat-screen TVs. J.C. Penney Co. is offering 15 percent more specials, including half-carat diamond stud earrings for $79.99. Kohl’s offered $89.99 Nextar global positioning system units, down from $199.99.

‘Tough Season’

“We approached this holiday knowing it was going to be a tough season,” said Julie Gardner, chief marketing officer of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based Kohl’s. “Consumers are continuing to be very smart in their shopping and look for ways to make their dollar go further.”

More than a quarter of U.S. households plan to shop Friday, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers survey. Almost 18 percent of those surveyed said they would shop between midnight and 4 a.m.; 36 percent said they would go between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. The council is a New York-based trade group.

“Retailers want people shopping whenever, however and why- ever -- just come on in now,” Wendy Liebmann, chief executive officer of the New York consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail, said in a telephone interview this week. “They need to get people excited at a moment when they don’t want to overspend.”

Doors Open

Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, will leave the doors open tonight at many of its 833 U.S. discount stores to keep crowds from congregating outside. Among the stores staying open is the one in Valley Stream, New York, where Jdimytai Damour, a temporary worker, was fatally trampled on Black Friday last year.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain announced holiday discounts on toys, turkeys and TVs as early as September. Those promotions won’t diminish the importance of Black Friday because it “signals the beginning of the Christmas season,” Charles Holley, Walmart’s executive vice president of finance, said this month. The company declined to comment further.

Walmart rose 11 cents to $54.96 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. Target climbed 37 cents to $47.83. Kohl’s gained $1.73 to $55.54. Best Buy increased 41 cents to $43.26, and J.C. Penney added $1.41 to $30.64.

Minneapolis-based Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, will open Friday at 5 a.m., an hour earlier than last year.

Blocks, Flat Panels

It cut the price of an Apex 40-inch flat-panel TV to $449 from $599.99 among doorbusters that go on sale at 5 a.m. Building blocks, a radio-controlled Hummer toy vehicle and a baby doll in a stroller are among toys marked half off.

J.C. Penney, based in Plano, Texas, will open at 4 a.m. It’s airing a TV commercial featuring tailgaters eating leftovers on Black Friday while waiting to shop, and will offer wake-up calls to shoppers.

As a run-up to Black Friday, Best Buy is airing three national TV commercials featuring $197 laptops and $79.99 smart phones. The retailer completed filming Nov. 20, allowing it “to have some screaming hot things for Friday,” Barry Judge, chief marketing officer, said by telephone yesterday.

“There are many more last-minute tactics you can spring on the consumer that enables you to hang back and get some attention,” Judge said.