Black Friday: Traffic Up, Sales Down

There were nearly 308 million store visits on Black Friday this year, a 3.5% increase from last year, but sales were down 1.8% to $11.2 billion, according to a ShopperTrak analysis. Why? Blame stores that actually opened on Thursday night, CNN reports. "While foot traffic did increase on Friday, those Thursday deals attracted some of the spending that's usually meant for Friday," says ShopperTrak's founder in a statement. "Black Friday shopping continues to expand into Thanksgiving Day and will impact the way we look at all of the 'Black' weekend results." (Meanwhile, Walmart reported its best Black Friday ever.)