Black Friday Spending Grows 11% in 2009

By Dena Cassella Published December 15, 2009

One of the busiest shopping days of the year is the Friday after Thanksgiving affectionately known as Black Friday. Shoppers descend on stores like a biblical plague and spend lots of money. The serious shoppers have been known to camp out in front of retail stores to be the first in line as well.

Black Friday deals aren’t limited to brick and mortar retail outlets alone. Many online companies like Amazon.com also offer good deals on Black Friday. Analytics firm comScore has released details about online shopping on Black Friday and the top two websites for shoppers were Amazon and Walmart.com.

Overall sales on Black Friday were up 11% from the same day in 2008. Visits to Amazon rose 28% with visits to Walmart.com rising 22%. The two online retailers have been fighting for marketshare in the online industry leading to significant price competition.

ComScore previously reported that online shopping for the holiday season 2009 is expected to rise 3% to $28.8 billion compared to the $28 billion spent shopping online for the 2008 holiday season. The official kick off for the online shopping season is today, known as Cyber Monday.

“While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter,” said Fulgoni.

Sales were up overall, but CNN Money reports that the amount spent per person was down compared to 2008. This year the amount each person shopping over the weekend spent dropped to $343.31 compared to $372.57 in 2008. Total weekend spending was pegged at $41.2 billion, up from $41 billion in 2008.

NRF CEO Tracy Mullin said, “While retailers are encouraged by the number of Americans who shopped over Black Friday weekend, they know they have their work cut out for them to keep people coming back through Christmas.”

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Haole built. O'ahu grown

Deals

Best Buy Black Friday laptop deals: What to buy before it’s gone

Good Morning GIF in Slack on a laptop.

If you missed out on bagging a deal yesterday, don't worry. Just because Black Friday is over doesn't mean the deals are! There are still lots of great Black Friday deals around for anybody keen to buy a laptop for less. Whether you're seeking out a budget-priced Chromebook or a high-end gaming laptop at a discount, this is the ideal time to upgrade to a new laptop. To save you the hard work, we've rounded up all the greatest Best Buy Black Friday laptop deals in one place, so keep reading to find your new laptop at a discount.
Asus E410 14-inch Laptop -- $150, was $350

Looking for a cheap laptop but don't want to settle for a Chromebook? If you have to have Windows, then it doesn't get much cheaper than the Asus E410. This 14-inch laptop is a no-frills work machine with its Intel Celeron N4500 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of eMMC storage, but for basic tasks like emailing, web browsing, watching videos, and typing up documents, it's more than enough to get the job done. It's a 14-inch laptop, too, so you've got a nice-sized display, keyboard, and touchpad to work with, unlike many cheap 11-inch laptops in this price bracket that are a touch too small for all-day work. It even comes with Windows 11 so you're set with the latest operating system.

Deals

Black Friday may be over, but this $99 Chromebook deal isn’t

Lenovo Chromebook 3 at Best Buy - Onyx Black

Chromebooks are generally cheaper than their Windows-based counterparts, and they're even more affordable with this year's Cyber Monday deals. That's right, Black Friday may already be over, but there are still deals to be had. So if you're in the market for a new Chromebook, here's an offer to consider -- Best Buy's $80 discount for the Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook, which pulls its price down to $99 from its original price of $179. You won't always see a Chromebook on sale for less than $100 these days, so complete the transaction now so that you won't miss this opportunity. And time is actually of the essence for this particular deal: There is a countdown listed for it, and this deal ends in about 20 hours. So this deal might not even make it to Cyber Monday. If you need a new Chromebook, act now!

Why you should buy the Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook
The Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook is equipped with the MediaTek MT8183 processor, integrated ARM-based Graphics, and 4GB of RAM. These specifications look a little weak on paper, especially compared to the components of the best laptops, but the Chromebook is still capable of providing snappy performance because of Google's Chrome OS. The operating system utilizes web-based apps instead of installed software, resulting in low overhead. The Chromebook also only has a 64GB eMMC for storage, but that wouldn't be a problem because you can save your files on the cloud.

Deals

The best Lenovo laptop Black Friday deals for 2022

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 laptop, opened with a colorful wallpaper on the screen.

If you didn't find the perfect deal on Black Friday, don't worry. The day itself may be over, but there are still some great Lenovo laptop Black Friday deals going on right now. You'll find some huge price cuts on Lenovo gaming laptops, laptops, and Chromebooks, so there's something for everyone here. With so many options, it can feel confusing, so we're here to round up all the best Black Friday deals for Lenovo fans. Read on while we take you through everything you need to know so you're guaranteed to end up with the right setup at the right price.
Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 -- $245, was $370

Lenovo's Black Friday Chromebook deals includes this amazing offer for the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3, which is one of our best 2-in-1 laptops with a detachable keyboard for its 11-inch 2K display. It's equipped with the second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c, integrated Qualcomm Adreno Graphics, and 4GB of RAM. These specifications don't look like much, but the device runs fast and smooth because it's a Chromebook that's powered by Google's web-dependent Chrome OS. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 also comes with a 64GB eMMC that you can supplement with cloud storage.