Black Friday Spending Drops 11%

This year's Black Friday sales, it seems, weren't as tempting as last year's. Spending was down 11%, according to the National Retail Federation. The group had expected some 140 million shoppers this year, but the number ended up closer to 134 million, Businessweek reports. But the group says this could actually be a good thing, suggesting that consumer confidence is high enough for people to skip the day's deep discounts. "The holiday season and the weekend are a marathon, not a sprint," says the NRF's CEO. Meanwhile, an analyst tells CNBC that he doubts things were really that bad—especially after Target reported its biggest-ever online shopping day on Thanksgiving, while Walmart reported its second-biggest. (More holiday shopping stories.)