Black Friday Sales Up 3%

Not bad, for a country barely staving off the second Great Depression, right?

U.S. holiday retail sales increased 3 percent yesterday from a year earlier, the smallest gain for a “Black Friday” in three years, research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp. said.

Sales rose to $10.6 billion, the Chicago-based company said in a statement. The increase was the smallest since a decline of 0.9 percent in 2005 and compares with a jump of 8.3 percent last year.

“So far, so good,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners LLC, a retail consulting firm based in New Canaan, Connecticut. “But a decent Black Friday figure doesn’t predict the whole season. The question is, how much momentum we can keep” in this “challenging” economic environment, Johnson said.

An increase, but not enough of an increase, so once again the sky is falling.

It's anecdotal, but shopping has been crazy around here. People actually slept in tents outside the West Hollywood Best Buy on Thursday night. It was still crowded when I stopped by yesterday looking for new headphones (no luck, buying them online). Last week, people had camp chairs in front of the Verizon store for the new BlackBerry when I walked by on my way to the Red Line.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:52 PM

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