Black Friday has come and gone, and so has Cyber Monday. Early indications are that shoppers are spending more money on average during the holiday weekend this year than during the previous five years. More than 172 million American's hit the malls over the 4-day weekend, a 17 percent increase over last year.

This is potentially great news for retailers, if it weren't for one thing: it won't last.

The number of shoppers curtailed drastically even as the weekend progressed, and by Sunday, many stores were reporting slow sales. It appears that many shoppers were out for bargains and bargains only. If it wasn't deeply discounted, it didn't sell.

This is a bad omen for the rest of the holiday shopping season. If retailers couldn't keep shoppers shopping after the loss-leaders were all sold out, there is little they can do to spur sales other than continue to mark down inventory. This means margins are getting squeezed even thinner, which doesn't bode well for store revenue. Look for future earnings reports to suffer as a result.

There are a few bright spots however, and they should come as no surprise: discount retailers. Wal-Mart and Target are poised to cash in this season as shoppers look to stretch their dollar. Target will have a sale on 1500 items from now until Saturday, and 500 of those items will be offered at their lowest prices ever.

Wal-Mart, the beacon of savings, started its holiday sales in early November, and should continue to see strong sales as more and more shoppers look for bargains. Dubbed "Operation Main Street", the promotion is discounting thousands of items, and the retailer feels it could save consumers an additional $200 million this holiday season.

The one retailer that I think will surprise this season is Best Buy. Everyone that put off the purchase of a new TV or other big-ticket electronic item this year will likely buy it now when it is deeply discounted. Add to this the must have video games of the year like RockBand and Guitar Hero and the still in demand Nintendo Wii console, and Best Buy could post good numbers this quarter.

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