That amounts to more than 10 percent of the $220 billion that the National Retail Federation expects will be spent during entire holiday shopping season. Shoppers across the country hit the stores as early as 5:15 a.m. on Friday, rushing to get deals on popular items like DVD players, flat-screen TVs, iPods and, of course, toys. In an early sign that buying will be strong this year, Visa USA said Saturday that the total of its credit and debit card transactions was more than $4.1 billion, up 15.5 percent from the same day last year. Visa said discount and drug store buys rose 20.9 percent, department store and apparel buys rose 15.7 percent, and home and garden transactions were up 15.6 percent. Purchases at specialty retail, gift and hobby stores were flat with year-ago numbers. Visa said its 450 million cards account for about 14 percent of total purchases. ShopperTrak RCT, which measures store traffic for clients, said it saw a 10.8 percent rise in its national retail sales estimate from the same Friday of 2003. Sales were estimated at $8 billion.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now