How big were Black Friday sales?

Despite the hype as to how much better sales were this year, Barry Ritholz reminds us, "We actually have no idea just yet as to whether, and exactly how much, sales climbed. The data simply is not in yet. The most you can accurately say is according to some foot traffic measurements, more people appeared to be in stores on Black Friday 2011 than in 2010".

He finds it humorous that some people (e.g., ShopperTrak) think they can measure sales based on foot traffic alone.

I think that, by and large, we now accept numbers that would have been questioned years ago.