Shoppers’ Black Friday Weekend Spending Falls 3%

Aggressive discounts on clothes and toys lured slightly more consumers into stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year, but budget-conscious shoppers spent less. Total spending from Thursday through Sunday fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $57.4 billion, with shoppers spending an average of $407.02, down 4 percent from $423.55 a year earlier, according to the National Retail Federation. The retail trade group said the number of people who went shopping over the four-day weekend that kicked off with Thanksgiving rose slightly to 141 million, up from 139 million last year.