According to the latest news reports, consumer spending on “Black Friday” was up 5% from 2005. The only exception being Walmart, which didn’t have much in the way of positive news. Same-store sales in November were far below their already soft forecasts. Then of course, there was the debacle with Walmart.com’s web site practically being inaccessible for most of the day (I took some personal interest in this story, as the President of Walmart.com is a family friend – but I digress.) The point of this post is that I think it is time for a new retail yardstick during the holidays.

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