Target Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Steinhafel confirmed in an earnings call, “Every year we invest aggressively in price to provide value during the holiday season … [and] we expect the season to be highly competitive and promotional.”David Assil, owner of Madison in Los Angeles, said, “Everybody has started promotions earlier this year. I saw an Intermix email in September [announcing a sale] on stuff that just hit shelves. People are getting aggressive.”Even Lord & Taylor kicked off its after-Thanksgiving promotions last Tuesday, offering an extra half off select items before the actual holiday. The retailer http://www.uggbootsoutletinc.com switched it up further by breaking with tradition to open for business on Thanksgiving Day, while its competitors in Manhattan — Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s — stayed shut.Specialty retailers appeared more measured about planned promotions.While Famous Footwear elected to keep about 350 stores open on Thanksgiving, it expressed optimism about its ability to avoid excessive markdowns, especially on boots, which will continue to be sales drivers for the season.“The advent of the $20 boot promotion seems to be worldwide, so that is the one thing people have gravitated to. We don’t have that in our mix. We just don’t think it’s something that fits our Ugg Outlet strategy or that we feel [is] worth the time and execution to do for a low-margin business,” said Rick Ausick, division president of Famous Footwear. “We think we can get our customer just as we did last year. We believe it’ll be fine.”DSW Inc.’s vice chairman and chief merchandising officer, Debbie Ferrée, was equally confident. “We have made the appropriate pricing adjustments to reflect what the customer is telling us in terms of what they want to pay for certain things within the boot business,” she said. “We are not going to take an overly aggressive position in giving away the farm in boots, because we don’t have to.”Independent Cheap Ugg Boots retailers also expect boots to buoy the top line.“Boots are must-haves in several varieties,” said Trisha Sweeney, head of merchandising for Shoebuy.com. “The riding boot is still very strong, especially from brands such as Frye, Timberland and Born. Also, booties have hit the trend big, with key styles from Vince Camuto, Nine West, Clarks and Naya. As weather permits, winter boots will soar from brands like the North Face, Ugg Australia, Sorel and Koolaburra.”Others retailers chimed in on the possible resurgence of Ugg product, weather permitting. “We’re pretty confident of that continuing. I don’t know if it will be at the level it was, but we still think it’s Ugg Slippers going to be pretty good,” said Hanig.Groo added, “[Ugg has] been good for me for the past eight or nine years.”Karmaloop.com founder and CEO Greg Selkoe also expected Ugg and Sorel to be strong sellers, as well as limited-edition product. “For us, we’ve always seen limited-edition sneaker collaborations do very well and drive a lot of excitement, like Alexander McQueen for Puma, Vans and Jeffrey Campbell,” he said.At Madison, Assil cited Fiorentini & Baker and Officine Creative as standout boot styles in his store. “It’s our new find, and we’re doing really nicely with them and Calleen Cordero,” he said.Steve Silver, president of Cleveland-based Next, however, noted that given Cheap Uggs the promotional activity and boots trend over the past few years, he doesn’t see that as a strong business this holiday season.“The customer has learned that perhaps they don’t need to buy as many boots with the weather being so warm throughout much of the season last year,” he said. “If they did buy boots [last year], they bought them heavily discounted, so they bought two or three pairs.