Thanksgiving takes more Black Friday sales

Source: AP-Excite

By STEVE ROTHWELL

Thanksgiving Day is eating into Black Friday shopping.

Shoppers spent $9.74 billion at stores in the U.S. on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that's typically the busiest shopping day of the year. That's a 13.2 percent drop from a year ago, according to data released Saturday afternoon by retail research firm ShopperTrak. However, combined spending over Thanksgiving and Black Friday rose 2.3 percent.

A few retailers opened stores on Thanksgiving for the last few years. This year, at least a dozen major retailers did so, with some opening earlier in the day. That led some analysts to question whether the Thanksgiving openings would take away sales on Black Friday.

Online sales on Thanksgiving Day also rose, climbing 19.7 percent compared with a year ago, according to IBM Benchmark data.





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