Black Friday deals bring out crowds

While there was a lot of hype about Black Friday sales this year, sales rose a modest 0.3% vs. the same day in 2009, ShopperTrak reported.

That is a smaller increase than the 0.5% rise recorded for Black Friday 2009 vs. 2008.

Shoppers spent a cumulative $10.7 billion this Friday, according to ShopperTrak, a company that measures traffic at malls.

However, some of the sales likely shifted to earlier in November when retailers began offering promotions, ShopperTrak believes. Sales in the first two weeks of November rose 6.1% vs. the same weeks in 2009, the group said.

The company also said some sales shifted online.

Separately, the National Retail Federation said results of its survey showed 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million. The average shopper spent $365.34, up from $343.31.

There were a lot of great deals to be had, and Shop-eat-surf writer Shelby Stanger and I braved the crowds on Black Friday to get a sense of the promotional environment at the malls as the holiday shopping season gets underway.

I headed to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and Shelby hit Fashion Valley in San Diego. We both arrived about 8:30 a.m.

I also went to the Irvine Spectrum Center in the afternoon to check on some industry stores.

Here’s a roundup of what we saw. Click here to read a press release from PacSun about its Black Friday results.

See Page 2 for the Black Friday promotions for industry stores