Holiday Shopping Season off to Modest Start

ShopperTrak RCT is expected to release data for the combined Friday and Saturday period on Monday. Bill Martin, ShopperTrak's co-founder, said he wasn't sure if the momentum was sustained through the rest of the weekend.

A couple kisses outside the Apple Store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile as a Santa display sports an iPhone Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

(AP)

The day after Thanksgiving — dubbed Black Friday because it historically was the day when a surge of shoppers helped stores break into profitability for the full year — has been fading in importance.

In recent years, merchants have been pushing earlier the sales and expanded hours that were typically reserved for that day. This year, in a desperate bid to pull in shoppers, stores were even more aggressive, offering discounts of up to 70 percent in the days leading to the weekend, and widening those price cuts for a broader array of merchandise for the early morning deals.

Related

Blackest Friday: 2 Die in Toy Store Shooting

Christmas on a Budget: Gifts Under $30

How to Nab Black Friday's Best Deals

Aside from the economy, however, Black Friday's early morning madness has also lost some of its steam because of the abundance of bargains that shoppers can find on the Web. Cohen also noted there's less frenzy this year because, with the exception of some isolated hard-to-find hits like Fisher-Price's Elmo Live and Nintendo's "Wii Fit" exercise game, there isn't a particular gift that's a "big standout."

While Black Friday isn't a predictor of the holiday season, it does act as a barometer of consumers' willingness to spend. Complicating matters is a shorter buying season — 27 days between Black Friday and Christmas — instead of 32 last year, putting more pressure on retailers.

Clearly economic woes played a role in how shoppers bought this weekend. K-B's Webb noted that consumers were focusing on bargains like a $30 My Happy Family dollhouse, which offered furniture and figures, as part of the retailer's supervalue program. Taubman's MacDonald said that practical items did well, like cookware and small home appliances, but clothing and electronics also were popular because they were deeply discounted.

The managers of Dillard's and Macy's departments stores at Greenspoint Mall in north Houston both said weekend crowds met expectations, though shoppers seemed to be more bargain-hungry than in recent years.