By Angela Chen 
 

Retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Target Corp. (TGT) reported strong Thanksgiving Day traffic as shoppers focused on big-ticket electronic items.

Neither retailer reported specific sales figures early Friday morning, but both bragged about the number of customers that shopped at stores and online.

Wal-Mart and Target were among a host of retailers that began offering special "Black Friday" sales on Thanksgiving Day, starting at 6 p.m., in an effort to boost struggling sales in a tight economy and keep up with online retailers.

Online sales were key this year, as Target said Thursday was its biggest online sales day ever, while Wal-Mart said it was the second-highest online sales day ever, behind only last year's Cyber Monday, the nickname for the Monday after Thanksgiving when retailers tend to offer special deals online.

Wal-Mart also said it had more than 22 million customers at its stores between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday, compared with 10 million last year.

The retailer said tablets, televisions, sheets, children's apparel and videogame products were among the top sellers. Other top sellers were dolls of Elsa from the Disney movie "Frozen," food containers and towels. Online, Wal-Mart said, popular items included wireless prepaid phones and baby items.

Shala Beharry, 37 years old, of Valley Stream, N.Y., walked out of the Wal-Mart here with three shopping carts brimming with towels, toys and furniture around 7 p.m. She and her husband got to the store around 3 p.m. and said they didn't have to wait to get in a store but once inside they waited an entire hour to check out and pay for their goods. They said they checked online for items like the Frozen Elsa doll and other Christmas presents for their three kids, but many items including the Elsa doll were sold out, so they decided to come to the store.

"The Frozen stuff was all sold out," she said, noting that they will probably buy more things online later in the weekend and next week.

Meanwhile, at Target, mobile sales were a key driver, the company said. Online, the number of orders and sales increased more than 40% from the year before. Top-selling online items included iPads, Nikon L330 camera, Beats by Dre Solo HD headphones, the Dyson DC50 Allergy vacuum and the Sony PlayStation 4 Bundle.

In the stores, Target's top-selling items included the Element 40-inch television and Xbox One. In the first hour of stores being open, Target said it sold 1,800 televisions per minute and 2,000 videogames per minute. Other popular items were the Keurig K40 Brewer and the KitchenAid Classic Plus Stand Mixer.

About 500 people lined up at the Target in the East River Plaza in New York City, led by Nicole Cruz. The night was a family affair. The 20-year-old alternated holding the spot with her brother since 1 a.m. She planned to buy a slow cooker and a set of pots and pans for the apartment she shares with her mother, who works at the Target.

She prefers to come to the store rather than buying online because she doesn't like the wait. "I'm just a couple blocks away," she said.

A few spots down, Martin Heron, 31 years old, said he arrived at 11 a.m. so he can buy a couple televisions, including a 55-inch Westinghouse for $395. He plans to limit his holiday spending to less than the $2,000 he spent last year, mainly because he doesn't have enough room in his apartment. He prefers Black Friday to online shopping because of the comraderie developed with fellow line holders.

"We feel like we're family," he said.

This year, Target also had tried offering certain presale Black Friday deals in stores and online Wednesday. By 9 a.m. Wednesday, online sales had exceeded total sales from the same day last year, the company said.

Department stores J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) and Macy's Inc. (M), which started Thanksgiving Day deals for the first time last year, opened at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. Kmart opened at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving, while Sears opened at 6 p.m. the same day.

About 140 million people are expected to shop over this holiday weekend, a number flat from last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Shoppers spent about $57.4 billion during the Black Friday weekend last year, the first decline on Black Friday weekend since 2009, according to the federation.

Amanda Walters, 25, and her sister Arleen Chaunce, 29, brought their husbands, four kids and their grandmother to a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., at 2:30 p.m. Thursday with one item in mind: a flat-screen television. The family of nine waited outside for nearly four hours before they were let inside the store and able to snag a 50-inch Emerson TV for $218 and a 65-inch Vizio TV for $648, "probably a couple hundred dollars discount" than what she said she has found throughout the year, Ms. Chaunce said. She recently moved from New Jersey to Brooklyn and has been waiting for months to find a deal on a new TV.

Her sister also picked up a new TV but said she'd do the rest of her Christmas shopping online because "it's much easier than this, the crowds are crazy here," Ms. Walters said, noting that she usually did most of her shopping online.

American shoppers have a lot of reasons to feel more confident this holiday season. Six months of strong economic growth have produced an upsurge in employment; wages are growing, if only barely; and a sharp drop in gasoline prices has put another $20 to $30 a month into most American's wallets.

At the same time, consumers remain cautious. A rough fall led Macy's and Wal-Mart to cut their financial forecasts, as a persistent decline in shopper traffic has left the industry jittery about a holiday season that is expected to rely heavily on profit-sapping discounts to drive sales.

The coming four weeks will be a test of how aggressively Americans are willing to spend and how much momentum the U.S. economy has going into the end of the year. That in turn is a crucial variable for a world economy that is relying more heavily on the U.S. as Europe sputters and once-fast growth in emerging markets like China slows.

Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com

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