It seems that Thanksgiving knows no recession. Thanksgiving weekend retail sales came up to a whopping total of $41.2 billion, beating the 2008 haul by $1.2 billion. The amount is a .5% increase over last year’s $41 billion. However, ‘the average shopper spent 8% less than in 2008, $343.31 against $372.57.’

Consumers were still wary and cautious due to the financially difficult times. Electronics and toys attracted spenders the most, especially because these items had the most discounted prices. According to Tracy Mullin, National Retail Federation president and chief executive officer, “While retailers are encouraged by the number of Americans who shopped over Black Friday weekend, they know they have their work cut out for them to keep people coming back through Christmas.” It was a heady shopping weekend, one can say.

Remarkable was the total number of online and in-person shoppers. These totaled 195 million, ‘up from 172 million a year earlier.’ Says 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.”

‘The day after U.S. Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is considered the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season.’ This year, everybody seemed to have caught the proverbial promotional bug.

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Via Bloomberg.com