NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Kohl's Corp. 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 US department-store chain, planned to open at 4 a.m. today and offer more than 300 early-bird specials, including $34.99 cashmere sweaters. Larger chain Macy's Inc. cut the prices of some wool coats as much as 70 percent. Walmart was staying open all night so shoppers can grab $3 pajamas and $15 Miley Cyrus jeans when they go on sale at 5 a.m.

The chains are also contending for home-electronics shoppers. Walmart's website 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.

"Retailers are taking every opportunity now to fight for the customers that are coming to the malls and shopping centres," said Joe LaRocca, asset-protection adviser for the National Retail Federation. The day after US 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 NRF, 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 is selling some toys at half price.

"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 US households plan to shop today, according to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers. 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.

"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."

Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, will leave the doors open at many of its 833 US 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.

After this weekend, traffic in stores will slow through mid-December, according to Robert Drbul, a Barclays Capital analyst in New York. Another jolt of discounts will grab shoppers waiting for deals in the 10 days before Christmas, he predicted.

"We expect a late Christmas," Drbul said.