Chain Store Agereports that data from First Data Corp. showed transactions increase by 7.9% on Black Friday this year compared to last year.
"Black Friday was better than last year both in terms of transaction growth and total dollars spent at the point of sale," said Silvio Tavares, senior VP investor relations and decision support at First Data. "However, there is reason to remain cautious as our analysis suggests consumers remain very value conscious and paid more often with their debit cards instead of credit cards."
An increase in Black Friday sales seems to indicate the economy is a little healthier but it would be premature to judge the holiday shopping season on a single day. It may have just been a case of a lot of deal hunters out early.