Black Friday Sales

BLACK FRIDAY TURNS GREEN: Retailers’ early store openings and aggressive pricing on Black Friday led to sales rising $6.6% to a record $11.4 billion, with foot traffic up 5.1%. According to the National Retail Federation, a record 226 million shoppers hit the stores and websites over this past weekend, up from 212 million last year. The average shopper spent about $400 this weekend, up from $365.34 last year. Total spending reached an estimated record amount of $52.4 billion. The four-day holiday weekend sales rose 10% to a new record of $43 billion, according to Customer Growth Partners. Online shoppers lifted sales 15% to $12.7 billion in the first 25 days of November, according to comScore. Black Friday alone saw a 26% increase to $816 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day to date this year. Today, the attention turns to Cyber Monday, with retailers across the board releasing other deals to encourage shoppers to buy online. The Dow was up 263 points this morning. (11/28a)