Black Friday, Cyber Monday set sales records

In the year 2050, youngsters will sit with wide eyes on their grandfather’s knees and ask “So, Thanksgiving weekend wasn’t always about shopping for electronics?” 2012 was another record year for retailers, from Turkey night through Cyber Monday. The National Retail Federation reports sales topped $59 billion for the four days through Sunday, with a record 247 million shoppers visiting stores and websites. Online sellers saw a 17.4 percent increase in Thanksgiving Day sales, and a 20.7 percent spike on Black Friday, according to IBM. The magic continued on Monday, with web merchants taking in some $1.47 billion, a 17% increase over Cyber Monday 2011, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Walmart.com had its best sales day in history on Monday, according to a spokeswoman, and Amazon reported a record day for sales of Kindle devices, though no word on the exact amount sold.