Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 4

www.herald-review.com billion more on Friday OIOIO Increase in spending makes record for biggest Black Friday day of sales from last year, according to a report released Saturday by ShopperTrak. It was the largest amount ever spent on the day that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and the biggest year-over-year increase since 2007. Chicago-based ShopperTrak gathers data from 25,000 outlets across the United States, including individual stores and shopping centers. Online shopping was strong as well, with a 24.3 percent increase in online spending on Black Friday, according to IBM, which tracks sales at 500 online retailers. Bill Martin, who founded ShopperTrak, said he was surprised by the strong showing.

He had expected the weak economy to dent consumer confidence and keep more shoppers out of the stores, or at least from spending much. Instead, he said, consumers responded to a blanket of promotions, from 60-percent off deals to door-buster savings on electronics. "I'm pleased to see it. You can't have a great season without having a good Black Friday, Martin said. Still, he suspects things will quiet down this weekend, as promotions end and the buying frenzy subsides.

ShopperTrak is expecting holiday sales to be up 3.3 percent overall through Christmas. The Boost Mobile Samsung Galaxy Prevail no-contract Android phone featured on page 4 of the Target advertising supplement for November 27th shows an incorrect price of $79.99. The correct price is $149.99. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. The Associated Press The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start on Black Friday, with retail sales up 7 percent over last year, according to one survey.

Now stores just have to keep buyers coming back without the promise of door-buster savings. Buyers spent $11.4 billion at retail stores and malls, up nearly $1 billion TARGET. A4 NATION SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2011 DECATUR, ILLINOIS Shoppers drop $1 LW as mmsx KDL32BX320 KDL40BX420 KDL46BX420 SONY. SONY Associated Press Black Friday shoppers take a rest at Westfield Galleria at Roseville in Sacramento, Calif. Coupons, hype and more mix to create shopping troubles AND fi TELEVISION A corner JasPer Cantrell Decatur, iL4ZZ-3Uii Pepper-spraying suspect turns self into police LOS ANGELES (AP) A woman suspected of showering Black Friday shoppers with pepper spray surrendered to authorities but was released pending further investigation after she refused to discuss the incident, police said Saturday.

The woman, whose name was not released, is suspected of firing pepper spray into a crowd in order to clear a path to a crate of Xbox video game consoles that were being unwrapped late Thanksgiving night at a Wal-Mart in the upscale Porter Ranch section of the San Fernando Valley. The suspect got away in the confusion, and it was not known if she bought one of the Xboxes. Ten people suffered minor injuries from the spray and 10 others sustained cuts and bruises in the ensuing chaos. "Last night at 8:30, the suspect involved in the pepper spray incident at the Porter Ranch Wal-Mart turned herself in," police Sgt. Jose Valle said Saturday.

She immediately invoked her right against self-incrimination, however, and refused to discuss the incident further. Police released her pending further investigation. Valle said investigators still have nearly a dozen witnesses to interview, including several spraying victims. He added it would likely be at least two days before an arrest in the case could be made. If the woman who surrendered is indeed the person who sprayed the crowd, she could face battery charges.

EVERGREEN SENIOR LIVING Supportive Living at Evergreen Place Sl Memory Support at The Legacy We provide seniors with affordable options for an assisted lifestyle in Decatur. 24 Hour Assistance 3 meals daily Housekeeping Laundry Medication Reminders memories of the 2008 Black Friday stampede that killed an employee and put a pregnant woman in the hospital at a Wal-Mart on New York's Long Island. Black Friday, named that because it puts retailers "in the black," has become more intense as companies compete for customers in a weak economy, said Jacob Jacoby, an expert on consumer behavior at New York University. The idea of luring in customers with a few "doorbuster" deals has long been a staple of the post-Thanksgiving sales. But now stores are opening earlier, and those deals are getting more extreme, he said.

"There's an awful lot of psychology going on here," Jacoby said. "There's the notion of scarcity, when something's scarce it's more valued. And a resource that can be very scarce is time: If you don't get there in time, it's going to be gone." There's a new factor, Williams said: the rise of coupon websites that offer the online equivalents of NEW YORK (AP) Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles. How did Black Friday devolve into this? As reports of shopping-related violence rolled in this week from Los Angeles to New York, experts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels. With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered.

Arriving in darkness, they also find themselves vulnerable to savvy parking-lot muggers. Add in the online-coupon phenomenon, which feeds the psychological hunger for finding impossible bargains, and you've got a recipe for trouble, said Theresa Williams, a marketing professor at Indiana University. "These are people who should know better and have enough stuff already," Williams said. "What's going to be next year, everybody getting Tasered?" The wave of violence revived Now Taking Anticipated opening april 2012 Call us today to learn which living option is right for youl (217) 864-4300 2022 South Mt. Zion Road, Decatur Ever2reenSLC.c0mdecatur MM Mi 9 iPlilll The World's FINEST Christmas Trees best quality "''V' ffimgiiftgtitgfea b.

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