Retailers Report Black Friday Sales Boost
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The Black Friday shopping weekend signaled a rosier holiday season than last year, with early figures showing higher traffic and sales at stores and websites.
Retailers extended the shopping blitz from a day to an entire week, offering "door buster" promotions in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving weekend. And deals for "Cyber Monday," typically the first Monday after Thanksgiving, began showing up online earlier as well.
The string of promotions appeared to have succeeded in getting consumers to open their wallets. Roughly 212 million shoppers visited a store or website over the weekend, an increase of 8.7% from last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Retail consulting firm ShopperTrak, which uses monitoring devices to count shoppers, said sales rose only slightly on Black Friday itself. But the firm said the sales still set a record.
The early estimates can be an imperfect read on the weekend's results, however. The Washington-based NRF bases its data on a survey of consumer actions and intentions, the latter of which could change. ShopperTrak provides data used widely by the industry. But the firm's traffic counters mostly are in malls—just one slice of the shopping landscape. A more detailed accounting will come Thursday, when more than two dozen retailers report monthly sales. Government data are due midmonth.
Some executives nevertheless pointed to a return of holiday cheer, an about-face from the gloomy tone of the previous two holiday seasons. "People seemed happier this weekend, while last year they were more desperate, feeling they had to get the bargains," said Gerald Storch, chief executive of Toys "R" Us Inc.
The optimism revealed itself in consumers shopping for themselves. Chevara Gureu, a 19-year-old student from Los Angeles, passed by the 40%-60% off deals at Saks Inc.'s Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan and paid full price—$900—for a St. John jacket with a fur collar. She said her family's finances have improved from last year. "My mother sent me some money and said, 'Go buy yourself a Christmas present,' " Ms. Gureu said Sunday.
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