Black Friday Article (Week 7)

Shoppers took to stores in big numbers over the holiday weekend. The National Retail Federation reported Sunday that Americans spent an estimated $41.2 billion over the holiday weekend, an amount on par with last year. Store traffic surpassed expectations despite the weak economy. "It was a pretty successful" weekend, said Scott Krugman, NRF vice president. Shoppers, as expected, went for good deals on lower-priced items. Retailers will get another look at the holiday season today with Cyber Monday, the official start of the online holiday season. Almost 97 million people are expected to shop online today vs. 85 million last year, according to a survey for Shop.org by BIGresearch. Almost $10.6 billion was spent online in November through Friday, a 3% increase vs. the same time last year, says researcher ComScore. These economic statistics prove that our country is not afraid to spend despite the poor state of the economy. It's starting to show that we can get out of the economic downfall that we are in.