Electronics Retailers Score from Sales on Thanksgiving; A tradition Is Here

Yes, Black Friday retail sales were a bit of a disappointment. What wasn't clear is how much the Thanksgiving Day sales took sales away from Friday, especially at electronics stores.

MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse reported Wednesday that electronics sales on Thanksgiving Day grew by "triple digits" from a year ago. Presumably that's because so many more stores were open compared with 2012.

What buyers wanted was tablets, televisions and other electronics.

The temptation for the retailers was this: They knew that shoppers did 70 percent of their Black Friday spending at the first two stores visited.  

Those are "critical dollars," said Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president of market insights for the consulting arm of the credit-card processor. So it should be no surprise that retailers competed to open earlier and earlier.

And for electronics retailers, the strategy worked.

Overall, sales on Thanksgiving Day jumped a whopping 23.7 percent from a year ago, SpendingPulse said. Black Friday sales were up 2.9 percent. Sales for the two days were up 8 percent from a year ago.

One more important point: Online shoppers were busy, too, on Thanksgiving Day. Sales were up 19.4 percent from a year ago. Black Friday sales were up 12 percent.

Apparel and jewelry sales were strong on Thanksgiving but decline on Friday. Luxury sales were up "double digits" on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Investors still were not happy. MasterCard MA hit an all-time high of $765 on Friday and has fallen 2.2 percent since, closing at $748.17 on Tuesday, down $5.93 on the day. There was a touch of good news in the close: The stock rebounded from a low of $744.06.

Rival Visa V was up 99 cents to $202.74.