Good Start To The Holiday Shopping Season

Retailers of all kinds were pleased with this year's after-Thanksgiving results. The first weekend of the holiday shopping season saw higher-than-expected sales across the board.

Apparel, especially sweaters and coats, was among the top sellers in stores and online, followed by electronics. And scooters and electronic pets scored the biggest points in the toy department.

Wal-Mart said overall sales on Friday totaled $1.1 billion, a mid-single digit increase over last year. Sears reported Friday sales increased 8 percent from a year ago and expects a 10 percent increase for the entire weekend's sales. The Taubman Centers Inc. (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), which owns and operates 27 shopping centers in 12 states, said most of its tenants experienced mid-to-high single digit sales gains Friday.

The biggest online sellers for the weekend, according to Nielsen Ratings, were brick and mortar retailers with web sites. These retailers, like J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart, saw a 49 percent traffic increase. Reportedly, those retailers found exclusively online experienced a 26 percent traffic increase.