YUP, JUST LIKE THE GREAT DEPRESSION...:

Early data shows strong Black Friday shopping (ASHLEY M. HEHER, 11/29/08, AP)

The nation's retailers got a much-needed sales boost during Black Friday's traditional shopathon as consumers, lured by deep discounts, spent nearly 3 percent more than they did last year.

Sales on the day after Thanksgiving rose to $10.6 billion, according to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets.