The early bird catches the worm — or, in the case of Black Friday, the heavily discounted televisions, iPods and jeans. Those who braved the wind, rain and hordes of shoppers for the weekend-after-Thanksgiving sales were among more than 172 million shoppers visiting stores and Web sites, according to a news release from the National Retail Federation. James Richardson, University economics professor, said Black Friday turnout is a sign that people are more optimistic about the economy than experts previously predicted.The NRF survey results showed more than 147 million people visited stores and Web sites last year. Additionally, the survey showed shoppers spent an average of $372.57 the weekend following Thanksgiving — an increase of 7.2 percent from last year’s average of $347.55.”It means that perhaps even though the consumer confidence indexes are low right now, when it comes to buying, people feel fairly good,” Richardson said. Thanksgiving weekend spending is typically indicative of the following holiday season, and this year’s turnout is a sign that “consumers will still be very active consumers,” Richardson said.”Though retailers should be encouraged by strong traffic and sales over the weekend, consumers are still being cautious,” Phil Rist, executive vice president of Strategic Initiatives with BIGresearch, said in an NRF news release. “Weekend shoppers indicated that they are still sticking to a budget and thinking carefully before making any holiday purchases.”Lauren Bercovitch, social marketing manager with Adbusters Magazine, a not-for-profit magazine and organization aimed at ending “existing power structures, said the annual “Buy Nothing Day” felt “really successful” this year. “A lot of people mentioned that they thought there was a bit of a different tone with ‘Buy Nothing Day’ this year,” Bercovitch said. “People were really taking the time to reflect on consumerism.”Jessica Himel, social work graduate student, said she woke up at 3:45 a.m. Friday to buy a camcorder.”It was crowded, but I got everything I wanted,” Himel said. “There were some lines for laptops.” The NRF survey indicated about 50 percent of shoppers purchased clothing, 39 percent of shoppers bought DVDs, CDs, video games and books, and about 36 percent purchased electronics.
 
 
 
—- Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]