Leena Rao, writing for TechCrunch:
“As of 11 am PST, PayPal is already seeing almost a 3-fold increase (190%) in global mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2012 compared to the same time period on Black Friday 2011.“
Lots of detail in this article. These numbers are very early, but are trending in the right direction. Note these are online sales, and the numbers likely include a shift from brick-and-mortar purchases as well as outright year-over-year gains.
I had a sneaking suspicion we’d see outsized increases in Black Friday sales this year after our own annual shop-hop a couple of weeks ago showed a 100%-gain over last year. There’s a LOT of pent-up demand in consumerland.
My take: when people decry the poor state of the US economy, don’t believe it. Economies don’t stay down forever, and ours has been in recovery for 13 quarters. It’s about time we see positive effect.
A Random Stroll 
