Highlights
The November 24 Black Friday week was a big success based on ICSC-Goldman's same-store sales index which shows a 3.3 percent week-to-week surge for a year-on-year rate of plus 4.0 percent. The weekly gain is the strongest since December while the year-on-year rate is the strongest since April. The report especially notes the importance of this Black Friday's extended shopping hours. Despite the big rush of buying, the report says consumers have a lot of shopping still to do with the holiday-gift completion rate at 31.6 percent vs 31.9 percent this time last year. Redbook will issue its weekly report later this morning at 8:55 a.m. ET.