Sales slow after hefty Black Friday

The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start the day after Thanksgiving as retailers wooed customers with big sales.
But the hot streak cooled down over the weekend as stores returned to their regular hours and promotions were scaled back.
Black Friday -- as the day after Thanksgiving is known because it can push retailers into the black for the year -- posted sales of $8.96 billion, a 6 percent increase over last year, according to ShopperTrak RCT, which monitors customer traffic for retailers.
On Saturday, however, sales totaled $5.7 billion, a slip of 0.4 percent from last year.
"The promotions on Friday were very effective in getting consumers out, and once they reached that, Saturday was essentially flat," said Jim Martin, vice president of information products for ShopperTrak RCT.
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