Thanksgiving shopping took a noticeable bite out of Black
Friday’s start to the holiday season, as the latest survey found retail
sales in stores fell slightly from last year.
Saturday’s report
from retail technology company ShopperTrak finds consumers spent $11.2
billion at stores across the U.S. That is down 1.8 percent from last
year’s total.
This year’s Friday results appear to have been
tempered by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting sales Thursday
evening while still full of Thanksgiving dinner. Retailers including
Sears, Target and Wal-Mart got their deals rolling as early as 8 p.m. on
Turkey Day.
Online shopping also may have cut into the take at
brick-and-mortar stores: IBM said online sales rose 17.4 percent on
Thanksgiving and 20.7 percent on Black Friday, compared with 2011.
Yet
ShopperTrak said retail foot traffic increased 3.5 percent, to more
than 307.67 million store visits, indicating at least some shoppers were
browsing but not spending freely.
"Black Friday continues to be
an important day in retail," said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin. "This
year, though, more retailers than last year began their doorbuster
deals on Thursday, Thanksgiving itself. So while foot traffic did
increase on Friday, those Thursday deals attracted some of the spending
that’s usually meant for Friday."
The company estimated that
shopper foot traffic rose the most in the Midwest, up 12.9 percent
compared with last year. Traffic rose the least, 7.6 percent, in the
Northeast, parts of which are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.
ShopperTrak,
which counts foot traffic and its own proprietary sales numbers from
25,000 retail outlets across the U.S., had forecast Black Friday sales
would grow 3.8 percent this year, to $11.4 billion.
While consumer
confidence has been improving, many people are still worried about the
slow economic recovery, high unemployment and whether a gridlocked
Congress can avert tax increases and government spending cuts — the
so-called "fiscal cliff" — set to occur automatically in January.
And
some would-be shoppers said they weren’t impressed with the discounts,
or that there wasn’t enough inventory of the big door-busters.
"As
far as deals, they weren’t there," said Tammy Stempel, 48, of
Gladstone, Ore. "But business have to be successful, too. I’m hoping
they extend the deals through December."
She was waiting in line
outside an Ikea in Portland on Saturday to buy pots and pans for her
18-year old daughter — as a hint that it was time to move out. Stemple
and her husband went shopping at two Targets, Michaels and other stores
Friday, but failed to find any amazing deals, even on a flat-screen TV
they wanted for themselves.
Target, Best Buy and other stores near
the Ikea seemed to have few customers, and traffic at the nearby Lloyd
Center Mall also was light, even for a normal weekend.
Many shoppers around the country were armed with iPads and smart phones, to check prices as well as buy.

Online auction and shoppping site eBay reported more the 2.5 times the number of mobile transactions as
last year.
Online
retailers worked as hard as brick-and-mortar stores to draw customers,
sending each of their subscribers an average of 5.9 promotional emails
during the 7 days through Black Friday. That’s an all-time high,
according to marketing software company Responsys.
IBM, which
tracks more than 1 million transactions at 500 online retailers each
day, said its data showed 24 percent of online shoppers used a mobile
device to check out a retailer’s site and about 16 percent of online
purchases were made on a mobile device. But while total online spending
rose sharply, the value of the average online order dipped about 5
percent to $181.22.
In spite of all the TV reports showing
shoppers carting away laptops and giant flat-screen TVs, IBM said
combined sales of consumer electronics, printers and other office
supplies were up only 8 percent, with average order prices of $326.05.
Sales
of appliances and other home goods rose the most, up about 28 percent
from Black Friday last year. Clothing sales rose 17.5 percent,
department store sales grew just under 17 percent and sales of health
and beauty products rose 11 percent.
Despite the throngs in stores
Thursday night and Friday, many shoppers held off until Saturday,
hoping for shorter lines and less drama.
"I can’t deal with all
that craziness," said Miguel Garcia, a 40-year-old office coordinator
who was at a Target in the Bronx, New York, on Saturday. "Compared to
what I saw on TV yesterday, this is so much more comfortable and
relaxed. I can actually think straight and compare prices."
Garcia
was checking prices for phones and tablets at various stores, and
planned to delay any purchases until Cyber Monday when he’d have a
better sense of the best deals. As money has gotten tighter over the
years, Garcia said he comparison shops more.
"It forces you to become a good consumer," he said.
Tanya
Dunham, a 32-year-old patient coordinator representative, likewise
avoided the crowds on Black Friday and was shopping at the same Target
Saturday.
"I don’t like to wait (in line) just to save $15 or $20," said Dunham.
For
the entire holiday sales season of November and December, ShopperTrak
has predicted sales should rise 3.3 percent over last year. Those two
months are crucial for retailers and can account for up to 40 percent of
stores’ annual revenue.
___
AP Business Writers Candice Choi in New York and Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore., contributed to this
report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.