The scene at stores nationwide wasn’t as frenetic as years past, yet the turnout was good enough and the shopping vigorous enough over Black Friday weekend to reinforce hopes for low- to midsingle holiday sales gains.

Price promotions; cold and clear weather spurring outerwear, gloves, and sweater sales, and consumers sensing the most desired gift items could sell out quickly with retailers planning inventories cautiously this year lifted business over the Thanksgiving weekend. All the new tools available to make shopping easier, such as agentic commerce, chatbots, and buy now, pay later programs, also helped retailers, as did expectations that the discounting — most often seen in the 30 to 50 percent off range — won’t get much deeper, and certainly won’t be as wild and crazy as previous

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