Strong sales buoy dim hopes

Early data on retail sales for Black Friday show growth in spending, especially in the South

CHICAGO -- The holiday shopping season got off to a surprisingly solid start, according to data released Saturday.

But the sales boost during the post-Thanksgiving shopathon came at the expense of profits as the nation's retailers had to slash prices to attract the crowds.

Sales during the day after Thanksgiving rose 3 percent over last year to $10.6 billion, according to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. Last year, shoppers spent about $10.3 billion on the day after Thanksgiving, dubbed Black Friday because it is historically the sales-packed day when retailers become profitable for the year.

That growth was felt in the Triangle and throughout the South, which had a 3.4 percent rise in sales, the strongest for any region.

A manager at the SuperTarget in Northeast Raleigh said business was as good as last year. He said there were about 400 people waiting for the store to open Friday.

This year, many observers had been expecting consumers to spend more time browsing than buying, amid contractions in consumer spending and growing fears about economic uncertainty and trouble in the global financial markets.

"Under these circumstances, it's truly amazing when you think about all the news that led into the holiday season, it certainly appears that consumers are willing to spend more than most expected," ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin said. "Everybody wants value for their dollar, so we saw a tremendous response to the discounts."

While it isn't a predictor of overall holiday season sales, Black Friday is an important barometer of people's willingness to spend during the holidays.

But experts caution that the sales growth seen Friday may be hard to sustain. For one thing, the buying season is shorter than it was last year, with 27 days between Black Friday and Christmas instead of 32 last year.

For now, though, retailers are happy.

In the Triangle

Business at Cary Towne Center has been as good as, if not better than, Black Friday last year, according to mall manager Christy Alphin. While the hard numbers aren't in, she said representatives from a number of stores said they were pleased with sales so far.

"I don't recall last year feeling like I couldn't go through the mall," Alphin said. "There were times [Friday] when it was hard going through with all the people around."

Alphin said there's reason to believe that customers will continue to shop through the holiday season and not quit sooner, as some fear.

At Northgate Mall in Durham, TigerDirect, Sears and RadioShack had significantly longer lines than they did last year, according to Paula Harris, the mall's marketing director.

Shoppers trade down

Individuals may spend an average of $616 on holiday gifts this year, down 29 percent from last year, according to a Gallup Inc. poll.

"The mid-level department stores are the ones to watch," Jay McIntosh, president of Consumer Foresight LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm, said Friday in a Bloomberg Television interview. "They'll struggle this year. People tend to be trading down."

J.C. Penney said on Saturday that business was strong for the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Some of the department store's best sellers were smaller electronic gadgets and practical gifts, such as sweaters, boots, coats and luggage.

But the chain said it wouldn't provide specific sales figures.

"In light of the challenging and volatile economic climate, and shifts in this year's retail calendar, we don't believe that reporting sales data for any one day, including Black Friday, would provide a meaningful barometer of our business," the Plano, Texas company said in a statement released Saturday afternoon.