Crazy shoppers in America spend $52.4 billion

Retail networks in the United States received record profits this year as a result of Black Friday sales. US citizens spent $52.4 billion over the weekend of crazy sales. This is nearly $7 billion more than was spent in 2010.

The Black Friday sales profit was evaluated at $11.4 billion, which was 6.6 percent higher than last year. Last year, retailers received the profit of $45 billion during the Black Friday weekend.

Many stores opened their doors on Thursday night instead of doing that on Friday morning at 5 a.m. Many traditionalists said that American citizens should spend this time with their families instead of suffering from holiday shopping fever. However, many Americans preferred crazy shopping to family dinners and turkey birds.

The Black Friday of 2011 was marked with spraying pepper in one of Walmart stores in LA and with a battle for bath towels priced $1.88 a piece. In addition, security of one of the stores in North Carolina had to use gas against a crowd of shoppers.

As many as 212 million Americans ended their Thanksgiving with Black Friday shopping in 2010. This year, the number of shoppers has increased to 226 million.

The amount of the average shopping cheque has grown to - to $398.62 from $365.34 last year. The people were rushing for clothes, household goods, cosmetics and electronic devices.

Apple took part in this year's holiday sales for the first time. The company offered 10% discounts on its products.

Holiday sales season is traditionally interpreted as an indicator of the improvement of the well-being of the population. However, many experts say that this year's holiday boom was caused with the fact that the living standard for many Americans had dropped.

Vitaly Salnik.