US Black Friday shoppers spend more than in 2008

WASHINGTON - US shoppers were out in full force Saturday during the year’s most important weekend for retailers after laying out an estimated $10.66 billion on Black Friday in stores.

The figure was up about 0.5 percent over Black Friday 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal. The information was compiled by ShopperTrak RCT Corporation which tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores.

The increase was disappointing measured against expectations by retailers’ chief marketing officers of an 1.8 percent boost over 2008 in their own stores, according to a survey conducted by BDO Seidman LLP in October and reported by Bloomberg financial news

service.

But compared to 2008, when sales in November and December declined 5.8 percent from 2007, the increase was good news.

Monday - so-called Cyber Monday - is expected to see another shopping surge as retailers post special offers to Internet buyers. Nearly nine in ten retailers have a special promotion for Monday, according to the National Retail Federation.

Online shopping was already up for some retailers over 2008, according to the California-based Coremetrics. It said that consumers were buying more items per order by 18.3 percent and spending 35 percent more per order, or $170.19. Apparel retailers benefited most from the online surge.