Black Friday flat; Monday 'strong'

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ShopperTrak, the Chicago-based research firm, says major stores took in about the same amount of money Friday, Saturday and Sunday that they did Thanksgiving weekend last year, even though more shoppers came out. Customer traffic rose 2.8 percent, making up for a 1.1 percent decline in 2009, but shoppers were focused on deals.

Sales for the weekend totaled $20.48 billion, compared with $20.49 in 2009, which was 1.6 percent more than in 2008, according to ShopperTrak.

The firm expects holiday sales overall to rise 3.2 percent. And on Cyber Monday -- the Monday after Thanksgiving -- sales could top $1 billion, making it bigger than any single shopping day last year.

"The numbers are really strong," said John Squire of BM's Coremetrics tracking service, who added that he expects Cyber Monday to be the biggest online shopping day of the season. AP