The Queen of Hearts

Xmas Shopping Season kicks off with a bang

Black Friday sales up 6 percent from last year, national retailers report

NEW YORK - Retailers got what they wanted over the Thanksgiving weekend — a strong start to the 2006 holiday shopping season as consumers crowded stores in search of huge discounts on flat-screen TVs and other hot merchandise.

Stores and malls that opened as early as midnight on Friday drew a bigger-than-expected turnout, and robust sales for the first day of the season offset slower business as the weekend wore on, according to early reports.

The biggest winners appeared to be electronics chains such as Best Buy Co. Inc. and popular-priced department stores including J.C. Penney Co., which pulled in shoppers with good deals. Yet Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which promised the most aggressive discounting ever, was an exception, announcing Saturday that same-store sales for November will be slightly below its already lackluster forecast. Wal-Mart has struggled for months to appeal to both higher-income shoppers and low-price fans.

Online Sales

EBay Inc. had the most Web traffic on Black Friday, one of retail’s busiest days, with 7.5 million unique visitors, according to the data.

Amazon.com was in second place, with 3.4 million unique visitors, followed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with 3.2 million. There is no way to determine what percentage of Internet users are actually making Web purchases.

The search for Mattel’s T.M.X. Elmo, this season’s most popular and hard-to-find toy, drove much of that online traffic in advance of Cyber Monday, the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season.

EBay reported that 2,537 T.M.X. Elmos were sold Friday for an average price of $70.10. The toy retails at Wal-Mart for $39.97 and can be found on Shopping.com for as much as $150.

Other popular items on eBay included Sony’s PlayStation 3 — 14,675 have been sold on eBay for an average price of $1,186.39 from Nov. 17 to Nov. 24 — and the Nintendo Wii. Since that product debuted on Nov. 19, 26,708 have been sold for an average price of $412.53.

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posted by Queen of Hearts @ 05:57