Reply #8: Holiday sales fail to get shoppers to splurge

[ozymandius]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com ) -- Although deep discounts brought out much bigger crowds of holiday bargain hunters, a major retail trade group said Sunday that shoppers actually spent less money this year over the crucial Thanksgiving weekend.

The National Retail Foundation's (NRF's) 2007 Black Friday Weekend Survey said more than 147 million shoppers hit the stores over the Black Friday weekend, up 4.8 percent from last year.

However, the trade group said consumers, on average, spent an estimated $347.44 in total on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, down 3.5 percent from the previous year.

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The NRF's projection put a damper on some earlier estimates, including one from MasterCard Advisors on Friday that estimated Black Friday purchases to hit $20 billion this year, up from $19.1 billion last year.

Also, ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, said Saturday that total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Black Friday, compared with $9.5 billion on the same day a year ago.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/25/news/economy/nrf_blackfridayweekendsales/index.htm?postversion=2007112516