Black Friday Boom or Bust -- Numbers Next Week Will Tell

ATLANTA, Ga. -- The numbers are expected to come out early next week -- revealing how much money retailers in Metro Atlanta and the rest of the country made, or lost, on the first "official" day of 2009's Holiday Shopping Season.

Those numbers may help prove if the nation is coming out of the recession, or still stuck in it.

As of Friday night, the forecast for holiday retail business overall, from the National Retail Federation, was still that it would be down one percent. But last year holiday business was worse -- down more than three percent.

"It has been crazy all day," said a smiling Shaun Reynolds Friday evening. She's the general manager of the Old Navy store at Atlantic Station on the downtown connector in northwest Atlanta.

"It's been busier than last year, a lot more traffic than last year. Everyone's coming in with their [advertising specials] circulars. We've had long lines all day," since opening at 3:00 a.m.

Her check-out lines stretched through her store half-a-football-field long, non-stop.

The combination of almost unprecedented deep discounts and expanded hours and aggressive marketing filled the malls.

BOGO at Gap -- Buy One Get One free.

Forty percent off at Ann Taylor.

Other specials were popping up at stores throughout Atlantic Station.

At Old Navy, Reynolds was also giving customers five-dollar discount cards just for waiting in the long check-out lines.

"People this year are happy," said Liz Gillespie, VP of Marketing at Atlantic Station. "It's definitely picked up from last year."

Gillespie estimated that shopper traffic is double last year's, and said people are not just window shopping.

"You walk through the property, there are shopping bags and shopping bags and shopping bags. They're packing their cars and coming up and shopping more."

"There's a lot of shoes that I like that are really expensive," said one teenaged shopper at Atlantic Station, Sunshine Ahmad of Gwinnett County. "But they had 'em on discount, so I got to have a couple pairs." An early holiday gift for her.

Other economic statistics to be released later may also reveal a change, if temporary, in the way shoppers are paying for their merchandise this holiday season -- on Friday mall operators reported seeing shoppers use debit cards and cash more than credit cards.