Retailers Give Thanks for Black Friday Weekend

By George Anderson

If this year’s holiday season sales are going to be off, you wouldn’t know it from the throngs of consumers who made their way to stores and web sites this past weekend.

Sales for the two days following Thanksgiving were up 10.9 percent from the same days last year, according to ShopperTrak RCT’s National Retail Sales Estimate.

Comscore Networks said that there was a 40 increase in online sales (excluding travel) from Black Friday 2001. Computer hardware, consumer electronics, clothing and accessories were the hottest product categories online.

Moderator’s Comment: Two Questions–

1. Does this past weekend’s shopper traffic and sales
   mean that we will have a stronger than expected holiday selling season?


2. Are there any lessons to be learned from this year’s
   Black Friday weekend?

The rich get richer. Wal-Mart posted the single biggest
sales day in its history on Friday. [George
Anderson – Moderator]

• Holiday
  bargains dazzle US shoppers, but staying power in doubt. – CNN