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Black Friday Sales Show Small Improvement Nationally; Walnut Creek Retailers Optimistic
The economy may be on the mend, with crowds at stores nationally spending more on Black Friday than they did last year. Walnut Creek likewise was busy with shoppers on Black Friday and through the weekend.
Black Friday sales improved slightly nationwide. In Walnut Creek, business and restaurant owners and employees explain in this video how they were cautiously optimistic going into Black Friday but--to their delight--the crowds kept them busy.
Nationally, Black Friday sales increased by 0.3 percent from last year, according to a survey of 70,000 stores conducted by ShopperTrak, a research firm based in Chicago.
Sales totaled $10.69 billion, a record for Black Friday sales. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, estimated that 212 million shoppers visited stores on Black Friday, up from 195 million in 2009.
Online spending rose more than 14 percent from Thanksgiving day through Saturday, according to IBM's Coremetrics. The average online order rose by 14 percent and the number of items per order increased by 15 percent.
And now, Monday marks the digital answer to Black Friday: Cyber Monday, the designated day for shopping online for deals from retailers.
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