Early openings on Black Friday typically kick off the holiday shopping season, and the tradition isn’t only for big box stores.

A Wild Bird and Backyard General Store at 1109 Chetco Ave. in Brookings will get into the act by opening its doors at 6 a.m. Friday.

Owner Jack Cook said prices on everything except seed and consignments will be cut by 20 percent from 6 to 11 a.m. He anticipates it will be the first of several good weeks for local retailers.

“We look at it positively,” Cook said. “It feels like it’s already ahead of last year.”

Down the street at Fred Meyer, shoppers can start even earlier on Friday. The rush for bargains will start at 5 a.m.

“It’s going to be a great holiday season for us,” said Manager Matt Galli. “Sales have been strong this year and I’m confident this holiday season is going to be a good one.”

He said the hot items this year are TVs, Blu-ray players and board games along with “the old-fashioned sock sale that we do every year.”

Fred Meyer customers who can’t wait until Black Friday can get their fix Thanksgiving Day when the store is open from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m.

While Cook and Galli are optimistic about the upcoming shopping season, the co-owner of Great American Smokehouse on Highway 101 is taking a wait-and-see stance.

“I don’t have the foggiest idea” how sales will go, said Lee Myers. “I can’t tell from one day to the next.”

Myers, a longtime commercial fisherman before opening the store decades ago, said there won’t be any special Black Friday hours.

“Just plain old, plain old,” he said, adding that non-food merchandise will be priced at 50 percent off on Friday.

Hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Myers, who said he’s been in retail “forever,” added he’s trying to draw down his inventory before closing the store for a break after the holidays.

In Gold Beach, retailers are also hoping for a good Christmas season of sales.

Sativa Warren, manager of Rogue River Myrtlewood, said Christmas prompts the local residents into her shop more than during summer months, when business is tourist-driven except for wedding or housewarming gifts.

“We have stocking stuffers and beautiful handcrafted myrtlewood gifts,” she said.

Next door, Mary Bonstein, owner of Rogue River Apple Works, offers jams, jellies and other delicacies made in Gold Beach. There’s almost nothing in the store that isn’t produced in Curry County, she said.

Bonstein, who commented  that “locals don’t shop local,” said too many Gold Beach residents head for franchise shops for “a candle made in China.”

She hopes to lure some residents during an open house from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Dec. 10 when free snacks and hot cider will be available.

Gold Beach Books plans a big day of special sales Friday, when all new books are 10 percent off the normal price and free drawings for new books will be held all afternoon.

Starting at noon Friday, the first 20 customers who ring the book counter bell will get same-day coupons for any book in stock at 40 percent off the normal price, with only rare-book showroom volumes excluded.

Manager Carolyn Trigueiro said she hopes people throughout Curry County will shop local this holiday season.

“We definitely are strong proponents of ‘Keep the Cheer Here,’” she said. “We are all inter-dependent” in Curry County.