The traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season-the weekend following Thanksgiving-turned out to be considerably better than last year across the state, according to officials of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association.

"Black Friday," a term coined because the day after Thanksgiving marked the day many retailers went from being in the red for year to being in the black, started the weekend off with a bang with sales of 7.2 billion, five percent above last year's figure.

During the weekend, 72 percent of consumers did at least some of their Christmas shopping, officials said.

"With the economy picking up steam and consumer confidence on the rise, we are hopeful that the momentum from this past weekend continues throughout the holiday season," said North Carolina Retail Merchants Association President Fran Preston.

"We are very comfortable with the earlier prediction by the National Retail Federation (NRF) of a 5.7 percent increase in holiday sales this year over last year, bringing estimated revenues in excess of $217 billion this holiday season."

Though a large number of shoppers have indicated that they have begun their shopping, most are not as far along as they were last year, according to a consumer survey. The average consumer has completed 37 percent of their holiday shopping as compared to 39 percent this time last year.

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