Black Friday sales fall as sales start earlier [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

NEW YORK (AP) — The crowds of bargain hunters that rush through store doors the day after Thanksgiving have thinned out.

U.S. shoppers spent $9.1 billion at stores on Black Friday, according to data out Saturday from research firm ShopperTrak. That's a drop of 7 percent compared with the same day last year.

But it's too early to call the holiday shopping season a dud, said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak' s co-founder. Sales on Thanksgiving jumped 24 percent to $3.2 billion. And overall sales for the two days are expected to slip half a percent to $12.29 billion. The figures don't include online transactions.

For the second straight year, the report suggests that more people avoided the crowds on Black Friday by avoiding time at home on Thanksgiving Day. This year, many large retail stores decided to open their doors to eager shoppers for extended hours on the holiday.

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Graphic shows retail sales for Thanksgiving and Black Friday.; 1c x 4 inches; 46.5 mm x 101 mm;


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141130/us--holiday_shopping-black_friday-sales-2567599297.html