Closed captioning of: Black Friday makes record jump in sales
>>>
the retailers are still counting their cash. early estimates indicate it was a record black friday. the blitz started early krer this year. apparently, it paid off. shopper track shows sales up 6.6% over last year with shoppers spending more than $11 billion and foot traffic in stores was up more than 5%. retail reporter from the
washington post
is joining me now. good morning.
>>
good morning alex.
>>
what do you think of the phenomenal numbers?
>>
i think that one thing you're finding is that consumers are definitely looking for a deal. the buzz around the midnight black friday openings and the
thanksgiving day
openings drew customers out to the stores earlier and got them to shop. this increase that you're seeing is the biggest one since
2007
. but that doesn't mean that we're back to pre-recession spending yet. one thing that retailers are watching carefully is whether or not the sales simply were pulled forward. in other words, that people shopped early and not saturday or sunday. we'll see later if people were shopping earlier or if there's an overall increase in
retail sales
.
>>
we can take that to the
internet sales
as well. we saw the huge jump in
internet sales
. up 39% on thanksgiving and 24% on black friday. do you have concern on cyber monday that maybe people have done their shopping.
>>
on-line retailing is one of the bright spots this year. cyber monday is definitely a big holiday. but we're finding that that holiday is being sort of diluted as people shop on sunday, maybe the deals started already. may last as long as friday or saturday. you know, whether or not folks shop on cyber monday or over the week remains to be seen. either way, retailers plan to cash in on that. on-line retail seals are expected to increase 15%.
>>
with prices on the rise, people are still spending. given the economy, how does that add up?
>>
one thing that you're finding is that even though
consumer confidence
is down, people are still managing to pull out their wallets. even though they're sort of in a tough state and frustrated by what's happening in washington and maybe what's happening in europe, that that hasn't yet trickled down to their wallets. we're expecting this
holiday season
to be an okay
holiday season
but certainly not gangbusters as folks wait for the other shoe to drop and moderate spending accordly.
>>
many thanks.
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