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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010
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 THANKSGIVING WEEKEND 
4

Sales Rise Even Though Shoppers Spend Less

$41.2B weekend total beats 2008 haul by $1.2B

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(Newser) – Thanksgiving weekend retail sales totaled $41.2 billion, a .5% jump over last year's $41 billion, but the average shopper spent 8% less than in 2008, $343.31 against $372.57. Discounts, especially on electronics and toys, were the overwhelming attraction as cautious consumers pried open their wallets, Bloomberg reports. Retailers "know they have their work cut out for them to keep people coming back through Christmas," said the head of the National Retail Federation.

One potential bright spot was the total number of online and in-person shoppers: 195 million, up from 172 million a year earlier. The online figure is "not saying a lot considering that last year’s sales were soft," notes Peter Kafka of All Things Digital. "But for the record, sales are up three percent so far, and Web sales were up 11 percent on Black Friday."

Early morning shoppers scavenge for doorbuster deals on high definition televisions as they kick off the holiday shopping season at Target Friday, Nov. 27, 2009, in Harker Heights, Texas.
Early morning shoppers scavenge for doorbuster deals on high definition televisions as they kick off the holiday shopping season at Target Friday, Nov. 27, 2009, in Harker Heights, Texas.   (AP Photo/Killeen Daily Herald, David Morris)
Crowds shopping at Best Buy in Las Cruces, NM, Nov. 27, 2009.
Crowds shopping at Best Buy in Las Cruces, NM, Nov. 27, 2009.   (AP Photo/Las Cruces Sun-News, Norm Dettlaff, File)
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4 comments
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Cat-Lover
Nov 29, 09 5:04 PM CST
This is a surprise? The population grew, so there are more people shopping. As for spending less, there's really less to spend it on this year -- not much new! Reply
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+2
JGirl
Nov 29, 09 5:58 PM CST
i hate shopping regardless of sales...especially during sales...i hate the crowds and the waiting and the screaming kids and line ups. Reply
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+3
Derni
Nov 29, 09 9:17 PM CST
I hope they used cash..we don't need more debt Reply
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+1
IN RESPONSE:
deebles
Nov 29, 09 11:20 PM CST
Funny--like people have cash. Dubai with a snow mountain in the desert has no cash--you think some guy in Montana has a buck? Debt is our currency. Money is just a symbol for trust. I give you a rock and you watch my kid while I kill a tiger. Money has no intrinsic value and why it's all a Ponzi scheme that required a massive infusion last October. If, Madoff could have done what Bush and Paulson and Bernake and Geither, and then later Obama and Bernake and Geither did--he'd be afloat, too. In God we Trust--trust is the only value that paper has. Thank Nixon--not cause he was a Republican, but that he wanted that White House so bad that he turned a dollar bill into a commodity to be traded and that is where all the rich guys got rich--goggle it--currency trading.
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