Did you get a great Black Friday deal? Tell us about it

The tech gods blessed those who worshiped at the Black Friday altar, or so claim industry analysts releasing numbers yesterday and today. I confess to taking my daughter to an outlet mall, where the checkout line at the Sony store snaked from register to door. But I bought nothing. What about you? Did you do the Black Friday diddy? Please tell your story in comments.

Doorbuster sales -- those with really low prices for people willing to wait in line -- started as early as 10 pm local time Thursday night. Many tech retailers, Best Buy and Microsoft Store among them, opened Midnight Friday. "More than one-in-three (36 percent) Black Friday tech purchasers bought a doorbuster item -- an increase of four percentage points compared to 2010", says Ben Arnold, NPD's director of industry analysis. By NPD estimates, more broadly, American consumers completed one-quarter of their holiday shopping on Black Friday. However, tech buyers finished significantly more -- one-third.

Deep discounting, early Black Friday sales and retailer nervousness about the economy contributed to tech shoppers' bargain successes. The latter is most disturbing with possible collapse of the Euro zone imminent. This Economist editorial claims the "single currency could break up within weeks". Meanwhile, stateside, the Economic Security Index, which measures the number of Americans who experience a 25 percent or greater decline in household income, released startling stats. After dropping sharply during the housing bubble, the share of Americans "who experience a major financial loss" tops 20 percent this year.

Many retailers are taking a "sell it now while we still can approach" to Holiday 2011, because the Grinch and not Santa may come in a few weeks, if the Euro collapses.

"Rock-bottom prices and record early-opening hours illustrate the concern of the entire technology industry views this holiday season", says Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis. "NPD has been predicting that this would be the worst holiday since 2008, on a revenue basis, and the early season aggressiveness from the industry confirms this level of concern".

Among the many debates every year is brick-and-mortar vs online -- which will be more. NPD sees nothing in the early sales trends to suggest that online will be bigger. Still, online is big if for nothing else than research. "Technology purchasers favored online sources for information on sales and Black Friday doorbuster deals leading up to the event with 59 percent indicating this", Arnold says. He adds:

I fully expect mobile apps (used by just 3 percent of purchasers this year) to gain more traction as smartphone adoption increases. Prior to my outing Thursday evening, I used a few retailer apps (most notably apps from Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy) to find store hours, locations, and product pricing. Another tool that was truly valuable was Twitter which enabled me to search tweets referencing 'Black Friday Deals' for real-time updates on sales and stock levels. A search of local tweets in my area was also great for gauging how long lines were at the stores.

As for actual online sales, comScore offers insight. Online Black Friday spending rose 26 percent year over year to $816 million. Thanksgiving Day bargain buyers spent $479 million, up 18 percent from last year. For all November through Black Friday: $12.737 billion spent, up 15 percent.

"Despite some analysts' predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for ecommerce", comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni says. "With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it's clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels".

About 50 million American shoppers spent some time at online retail sites this Black Friday, whether buying or doing the research Arnold calls out. That's a 35 percent increase from last year. Most visited retail sites (other than auctions) from first to fifth: Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple. I wonder how many of those online Apple shoppers actually bought, considering the retailer had some of the stingiest deals of the day, ranging from 7 percent to 16 percent.

Would you stand in line at Apple Store to save 10 percent on MacBook Air? Perhaps I shouldn't ask, since so many people will wait for iPhone for full price. Beware the real bargain hunters, by the way. They are ruthless. The big Black Friday story out here in California was the woman who pepper-sprayed other shoppers. She wanted her cheap Xbox, and who doesn't?

I wonder if she bought the weapon of mass-Black Friday destruction at Walmart, which sells the "Sabre Red USA-Formula Pepper Spray Keychain" for just $7.97. Oh, but wait it's suddenly "not available at this time". You want to guess why?

If you were pepper-sprayed or peppered with bargains on Black Friday, do tell us, please, in commments below.

Photo Credit: K2 images/Shutterstock